Several cops killed

Thousands of demonstrators from a banned Pakistani Islamist group clashed with police yesterday, killing and wounding several people from both sides, police and the group said.

The clash broke out at a rally of the banned Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) on a highway in Sheikhupura district just outside the eastern city of Lahore, a spokesman for the Punjab police said yesterday.

"TLP activists used SMG, AK 47 and pistols to target police officials as the result of which several officials were martyred," the spokesman said.

The group said several of their activists had also been killed or wounded.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the government will use force to block the Islamists from entering the capital Islamabad.

He told reporters that three police officers had been killed and 70 wounded, adding that the government had deployed paramilitary troops in the Pakistani province of Punjab to help manage the situation.

Thousands of TLP activists have blocked Pakistan's busiest highway since Friday, demanding the release of their leader and the expulsion of France's ambassador over the publication by a satirical magazine of cartoons onsidered deeply insulting by muslims.

This is the group's third countrywide protest campaign since 2017 over the controversial cartoons.