Activists who are members of an Islamist party in Pakistan clashed with police and refused to unblock highways across many parts of the country for a second day Tuesday to protest the arrest of their leader.
Pakistani officials and witnesses have reported that attempts to disperse stick-wielding protesters in some areas triggered violent clashes that killed at least four people, including a policeman, and wounded scores of others.
More than 60 law enforcement personnel also were among those injured. Video showed wounded policemen, with some surrounded by protesters, and official and public vehicles damaged or set on fire.
Members of the radical Tehrik-i-Labaik Pakistan, or TLP, took to the streets in major cities Monday shortly after authorities in the eastern city of Lahore detained their leader, Saad Rizvi.
Officials and travelers said the ensuing blockades of major roads that are entry and exit routes to cities have caused hours of traffic jams, paralyzed businesses and disrupted routine life in Pakistan.
TLP activists also have blocked some of the key roads into the national capital, Islamabad.
Rizvi’s arrest was apparently meant to deter his group from organizing rallies demanding the expulsion of France’s ambassador over the reprinting of cartoons in a French magazine depicting the Prophet Muhammad, an act condemned as blasphemous.
The violence disrupted critical oxygen supplies for COVID-19 patients in the country’s most populous province of Punjab, of which Lahore is the capital, said Yasmin Rashid, the provincial health minister.
Pakistan is currently struggling to contain what officials say is a third wave of the pandemic. Officials reported Tuesday that at least 4,000 coronavirus patients were undergoing treatment in intensive care units in hospitals. ❐
