Three Pakistani police officials were killed and several injured after a violent mob of angry protesters clashed with the Lahore police on Friday. According to reports, workers of the banned outfit Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) were involved in the violence in which petrol bombs were hurled and stones pelted on officials.
Lahore DIG (Operation) Spokesperson Mazhar Hussain said two officials named Ayub and Khalid died in the attack. The identity of the third official has not been confirmed yet. Reportedly, the officials were attacked by a moving vehicle as thousands of protesters moved in the eastern city of Lahore for a march towards the capital Islamabad.
According to the Lahore DIG Hussain, the angry mob also hurled petrol bombs on the officials. Hussain claimed that the mob even used sticks and pelted stones. Police spokesman Arif Rana informed that the police fired tear gas when TLP supporters attacked a security checkpoint. As per reports, internet services were also suspended in several parts of Lahore after the attack.
A spokesman from the banned group TLP claimed that the ‘activists’ witnessed severe shelling during the attack and were surrounded near the Mao College bridge. At least 500 workers were wounded and several died.
Thousands of TLP members participated in the so-called event called “Long March” in Lahore where the workers of the banned outfit planned to make a long walk to Islamabad, located 300 kilometres away. The protestors aimed to reach Islamabad and pressure the Pakistani government to free their leader, Saad Rizvi, from prison.
Rizvi was detained under anti-terrorism laws last year after violent protests broke out in Pakistan over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a France magazine. TLP was banned by the Pakistani government after the protests.
It is important to note that TLP is a radical Islamist party that was founded in 2015 to prevent any changes to the existing blasphemy law in the country. Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi was the founder of the party who was also a radical Islamic cleric. After his death in November 2020, his son Saad Hussain became the successor of the party.
