Pakistan: 4 cops among 8 killed, over 250 injured in clashes between proscribed Islamist group and police

At least eight people were killed, including four policemen, and over 250 were injured in clashes between supporters of a radical Islamist party and the police in Pakistan’s Punjab state, prompting the Imran Khan government to deploy paramilitary forces for two months to control the situation.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar tweeted that the four police personnel were killed due to firing by the proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) workers, adding that 253 others had been injured in the violence. 

A Punjab police spokesman told Reuters that the TLP workers used SMG, AK 47 and pistols to target police officials as a result of which several officials were killed.

The TLP claimed that several of their activists had also been killed or wounded, according to Reuters.

Police said the clashes were triggered after they tried to block the TLP supporters’ march towards Islamabad.

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The clashes between the Islamists and police started at Sadhoke, some 50 kms from Lahore, when thousands of the TLP protesters who had been camping between Muridke and Gujranwala along the GT Road for the last three days started the march towards Islamabad after getting a go-ahead from their leadership.

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The TLP had given a two-day deadline on Sunday to the government to meet its demands to release the party chief Saad Rizvi and expel the French envoy or face a sit-in in the capital.

The proscribed group has been protesting against the blasphemous caricatures of Islam’s Prophet published in France and its demand that the French ambassador be sent back and import of goods from that country be banned.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad warned the protesters to return home. "The TLP has turned into a militant organisation as its members had opened fire on policemen using Kalashnikovs," he said.

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"The TLP is banned in Pakistan and now it is feared that it may be banned internationally too," he said, adding that Pakistan won't be able to intervene if such a thing happens.

The minister said that the government tried holding talks with the proscribed organisation and kept its word, but "the TLP broke its promises."

Punjab IG Rao Sardar Ali Khan said that the banned group had repeated its history of damaging state property and harming police officials.

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Addressing a press briefing alongside Punjab government spokesperson Hasaan Khawar, the official said that the group had always challenged the state's writ.

The TLP shot to fame in 2017 when it held a massive protest for three weeks in the busy Faizabad interchange near Islamabad. The party lifted the lockdown of the city after the then government sacked the law minister.

(With inputs from agencies)