The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) began its protest march in Lahore on Friday, with the plan to reach Islamabad and hold an anti-Israeli demonstration outside the US embassy there.
In Lahore on Friday evening that the protesters were trying to remove obstacles at the city’s Chauburji Chowk and march ahead. A statement by Edhi spokesperson Younis Bhatti said several policemen had been injured in clashes with TLP protesters. The statement added that Edhi volunteers moved the injured personnel to various hospitals in the city.
Meanwhile, TLP spokesperson Usman Naushahi told the media that one of the protesters had died and 22 were injured. Minister of State for Interior Affairs Tallal Chaudhry slammed the TLP for violence during its protest in Lahore, stating that mob politics no longer had a place in Pakistan.
“The Pakistani government and state are absolutely clear that protesting is a political, religious and fundamental right, but it has been enshrined in the Constitution with certain terms and conditions,” the state minister said at a press conference.
“If people will exercise their right to protest, they must do so in line with our conditions.”
Chaudhry highlighted that the TLP had brought mobs to protests and attacked security forces in the past, which had led to deaths and “damage to our image”.
“Mob rule has no place in Pakistan,” Chaudhry emphasised. Pointing out that a peace pact had been reached between Hamas and Israel, with which the people of Gaza were happy, he asked what was the purpose of the protest.
“I will give the media footage showing them using sticks, chemicals, glass balls and tennis balls with nails lodged in them,” he added. “They fire these at police and Rangers personnel like slingshots and have injured over a dozen of them.
“This mob, numbering under 2,000, left their central office in Samanabad and headed towards Ravi Road via Bund Road. They successfully made it because the police did not use force,” the minister said. “There were some blockades, but force was not used.”
The minister maintained that “police personnel deployed there were not equipped with anything other than the anti-riot gear”.
“The gunmen guarding the DIG overseeing the operation or [security measures] were also unarmed,” he added.
The minister added that when TLP leadership claimed injuries among their workers, CCTV footage showed the religious party’s supporters and workers shooting in the air and also destroying cameras deployed as part of the Safe City project. “Why did they do so if they were peaceful?”
Before the march began, roads in Islamabad were blocked and mobile internet services suspended. In anticipation of the protest, the Islamabad administration had also started placing shipping containers at Faizabad Interchange – the historic site of several TLP sit-ins.
Meanwhile, The Punjab government on Friday imposed Section 144 across the province for 10 days, effective immediately.
In view of the prevailing law and order situation in the city, education authorities have announced early leave for students across government and private schools and universities in Lahore.