Police and the group said thousands of protesters from the banned Pakistani Islamist group clashed with police on Wednesday, killing and wounding several people from both sides.
A Punjab Police spokesman said on Wednesday that the clash broke out at a rally of the banned Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) on a highway in Sheikhpura district outside the eastern city of Lahore.
“TLP activists used SMGs, AK 47s and pistols to target the police officers, resulting in the martyrdom of many officers,” the spokesperson said.
He said there were no details of the number of people killed but about 25 were injured.
The group said several of their workers were also killed or injured.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the government would use force to prevent Islamists from entering the capital, Islamabad.
“It cannot be tolerated anymore,” Chowdhury told a news conference in Islamabad. “We have shown restraint so far, but the challenge to the state’s authority cannot be tolerated anymore,” he said.
Thousands of TLP activists have blocked Pakistan’s busiest highway since Friday, demanding the release of their leader and the expulsion of the French ambassador over the publication by a satirical magazine of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.
Protesters started marching towards the capital Islamabad on Wednesday after talks with the government failed.
Life remained suspended in districts along the Grand Trunk Road as Islamists headed towards the capital, where city administrations have already placed shipping containers to block entry and exit routes to block Islamists.
Police said they tried to stop the march, which led to clashes.
On Friday, three policemen were killed in clashes on a highway in the eastern city of Lahore.
This is the group’s third nationwide protest campaign since 2017 over a series of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad published in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Such caricatures are considered deeply insulting by Muslims.
Charlie Hebdo first published the cartoons in 2006 and republished them last year to launch a trial over the deadly attack on the magazine by Islamic terrorists in 2015.
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