Police on Thursday launched an operation in the parliament lodges on the command of director-general operation Islamabad ahead of the no-confidence motion, Geo News reported.

The police stormed into the room of MNA Salahuddin Ayubi of Ansar-ul-Islam and arrested him along with other members of the party, the report said.

According to the report the DIG instructed the officials to evacuate media personnel from the building.

Shortly afterwards, Ayubi’s staff and police personnel started a clash. Several parliamentarians of the PPP and PML-N were also present in the lodges.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Khawaja Saad Rafique received injuries during clash with the police.

Rafique said that their meeting was underway when the police entered the Lodges, adding that the police was harassing the MNAs.

Following the incident JUI chief Fazl arrived at the Parliament Lodges, along with other opposition leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), to surrender himself before the police.

He announced to surrender himself along with some of his workers. Fazl urged all workers to reach Islamabad as soon as possible and also called the JUI-F workers to take to the streets to protest against the police action.

Police concluded the 30-minute operation to clear the Parliament Lodges from Ansarul Islam volunteers in which 18 persons were arrested including MNA Salauddin Ayubi, Jamaluddin and Mufti Abdullah.

The JUI-F chief said that the government wanted to abduct the Opposition’s members of the National Assembly by arresting them to reduce their numbers during the session when the no-confidence motion would be moved.

Sheikh Rashid

Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said that police tried to resolve the matter via talks but they did not obey the orders.

He said that national security is the top priority of the federal government. Rasheed added that a terror threat was already issued in Islamabad.

The minister criticised the opposition for using the tactics after failing to get the support of the required number of parliamentarians for the no-confidence motion.

Fawad Chaudhry says NA Speaker directed the Police to take strict action

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhary Fawad Hussain says the attack of JUI-F’s militants on Parliament Lodges is condemnable by all aspects.

Taking to Twitter, the minister said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman's armed group has reached Parliament Lodges to put pressure on parliamentarians.

The Minister said that the Speaker National Assembly has directed the Islamabad Police to take strict action against the facilitators of these groups and they will be dealt according to the law.