Arrests at pro-Palestinian protest after violence flares in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore – Winnipeg Free Press

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police have arrested more than 100 people following violence in the eastern city of Lahore, a senior official said Saturday.

Supporters of the radical Islamist political party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) want to march from Lahore to Islamabad to express their solidarity with the Palestinians. But authorities said they did not have permission to demonstrate in the capital.

Police have clashed with party supporters in Lahore since Friday, using tear gas and batons to disperse the crowds. People throw stones in retaliation. On Saturday morning, police fired a volley of canisters and rubber bullets to stop people from breaking through the barricades.

Kamran Faisal, the city's deputy inspector general for operations, told reporters that protesters were violent.

“They seized official vehicles, damaged several others, and one police vehicle was completely burnt,” Faisal told a news conference. “So far, 112 Lahore police officers have been injured, many others are missing and there is no information about their whereabouts yet.”

Authorities have arrested more than 100 people, he added. TLP said police arrested 700 of its supporters.

The party rose to prominence in Pakistan's 2018 elections by campaigning on a single issue: defending the country's blasphemy law, which imposes the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.

It was outlawed in Pakistan in 2020 amid violent protests over the publication in France of caricatures of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the ban was lifted a year later.

The TLP's last march attracted between 8,000 and 10,000 people, and the party set up a temporary camp on the outskirts of Lahore.

Authorities have already blocked the main roads into Islamabad with cargo containers.

They also suspended mobile internet services in the capital and neighboring city of Rawalpindi for the second day in a row, despite protesters being several hundred kilometers away. Schools, bus routes and intercity transport are closed.

Lahore, with a population of more than 14 million, is also under strain. Residents described it as a city under siege.

“Even small streets are blocked and the air stings the eyes,” said Zeeshan Khalid, a grocery store owner. “People can’t get to work, ambulances are turning back.”