ISLAMABAD: Nine firebrand religious figures have been barred from the city for a month because the Islamabad police and administration have their hands full with security problems that PTI’s rally poses on November 30.

District Magistrate Mujahid Sherdil issued the ban order on November 22 to prevent the nine ‘sectarian agitators’ from ‘stirring up strife and resentment’ in the already tense city by their fiery speeches ahead of the Chehlum of Imam Hussain, which falls in mid December.

Indeed, one among the nine, Maulana Yousaf Rizvi of Barelvi school of thought from Sargodha district, bears the really fearsome alias of Toka (meat cleaver).

Others barred from Islamabad are: Maulana Abdul Majeed Nadeem, Khateeb Masjid Al-Furqania Rawalpindi; Maulana Abdul Khaliq Rehmani, former president of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Punjab; Mohammad Hanif Qureshi, Khateeb Jamia Masjid Amna, Rawalpindi, and Ameer Shahab-i-Islami; Dr Khadim Hussain Dhillon, secretary general Ahle-i-Sunnat Wal Jamat; his deputy Masoodur Rehman Usmani; Allama Muzaffar Hassan Najafi, Khateeb Imambargah Hassan Rawalpindi; Allama Jamar Jatoi from Lahore and Zakir Syed Maqbool Hassan from Chakwal.—Staff Reporter