Lahore, October 21, 2025: Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari announced on Tuesday that the provincial government has moved to ban the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), saying authorities have identified thousands of financiers, frozen bank accounts and recovered large sums and valuables linked to the group.
Speaking at a Lahore press conference, Azma Bukhari said investigators had traced about 3,800 national and international financiers — “including prominent, educated individuals” — whose transfers supported TLP activities. She said the accounts of those financiers have been frozen and the suspects will face terrorism charges.
The minister said the Punjab cabinet has approved a summary recommending that TLP be included in the First Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act and that the summary has been forwarded to the federal government for final action.
Azma Bukhari listed items recovered from the TLP chief’s residence and linked properties, saying authorities seized nearly 1.92 kilograms of gold, about 900 grams of silver, dozens of branded watches and numerous gold bangles, necklaces and rings. She also said multiple benami properties and the group’s headquarters — described by officials as a “no-go area” — had been identified and secured.
The minister added that the government had taken control of 330 mosques tied to the TLP. She said the places of worship will remain open for prayers and the call to prayer, but there will be “zero tolerance” for misuse of loudspeakers or other platforms for incitement.
Responding to widely circulated social-media claims that TLP leaders Saad and Anas Rizvi had been killed or wounded, Azma Bukhari dismissed the reports as false. She said both men were not injured and were being traced by police; she added they would be taken into custody soon.
Bukhari alleged that the TLP operated a separate, modern communications office from which threats were issued against officials, journalists and herself. She warned of firm action against those who “took the law into their own hands,” saying they would not be allowed to escape justice. The minister said more than 110 policemen and civilians had been killed or injured in recent unrest linked to the group.
Provincial officials and law-enforcement agencies have launched a sweeping crackdown that includes sealing offices and mosques, geo-tagging seminaries, freezing bank accounts and lodging terrorism and public-order cases, authorities said. Punjab’s move follows a series of violent protests and clashes that the government says presented a threat to public safety.
