Authorities to enforce ban on protests in Tripoli

 

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s security forces will take all necessary measures to enforce the ban on demonstrations in Tripoli hours after Hizb Ut-Tahrir Thursday said it would go ahead with its Friday protest in support of the anti-government rallies in Syria.

“[Security officials will] act firmly with any party trying to breach this decision under any pretext, and take to justice all those who try to meddle with security and stability in these sensitive and delicate circumstances facing Lebanon and the region,” a statement, released by caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s media office, said.

The announcement came after Hariri chaired a security meeting with caretaker Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud, Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwaji, director general of the Internal Security Forces Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, and head of the Information Branch at the ISF Col. Wissam Hassan.

Earlier Thursday, the pan-Islamist Hizb-Ut-Tahrir said it would go ahead with a planned demonstration in support of anti-government protesters in Syria Friday despite a ban by Lebanese authorities.

“Our protest will be held tomorrow at Nour Square,” the group’s media officer in Lebanon, Ahmad Qasas, told a news conference at the group’s headquarters in Abu Samra, a neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli.

“We, in Hizb Ut-Tahrir, support martyrdom,” he said, in a clear reference that party members were ready to die for their cause.

“We will walk together from Mansouri Mosque to the square without forming any other gatherings in the streets of Tripoli, in order to abide by the instructions of the security council,” Qasas said.

Hizb Ut-Tahrir is an international pan-Islamic political organization that seeks the unification of Muslim countries under one caliphate, or head of state.

“Politicians have their own agenda. We, however, support our people, who are subjected to injustice and oppression in Sham [Syria],” Qasas said.

“The party will demonstrate in support of the oppressed [Syrian] people who are subjected to the worst forms of abuse,” Qasas had told a local television station earlier.

“We do not recognize political borders between states,” he said.

Security officials in the north denied two requests Wednesday for permits to hold demonstrations in Tripoli for Friday, one against and the other in support of the Syrian regime.

The decision came after the North Lebanon Security Council convened in Tripoli’s Serail Wednesday under Nassif Qalosh, the governor of the north, in the presence of top north Lebanon-based security officials.

Qasas said that the ban by the authorities was political rather than legal.

“We do not care for it. If a clash breaks out, we will not be the initiators.”

Hizb Ut-Tahrir Wednesday issued a statement in response to remarks made by Baroud the day before and said that any official decision to reject the party’s permit request was illegal and not objective.

After chairing a meeting for the Central Security Council, Baroud said there were two permit requests for demonstrations planned to be held at the same time and “taking almost the same routes” on Good Friday.

“Tripoli … has Christian and Muslim residents and Christians there have the right to practice their religious rituals that include the Good Friday [prayers] and circling in the city,” Baroud said, adding that the North Lebanon Security Council would take all this into consideration.

Qasas Thursday said the planned route for the protest did not pass through areas inhabited by Christians.

Source : dailystar.com.