Pakistan: police killed during TLP protest

TLP protest in Lahore, Pakistan, here October 23, 2021. REUTERS - MOHSIN RAZA

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In Lahore, eastern Pakistan, at least three police officers were shot and killed, 70 others injured, in a TLP protest, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, on Wednesday (October 27th).

The Islamist party, considered a militant organization by the authorities, claims that at least four of its militants were killed, dozens more injured.

The TLP has been calling for the release of their leader imprisoned since April for several days.

He also demands the expulsion of the French ambassador since President Macron defended the right to caricature during a ceremony in tribute to the teacher Samuel Paty, assassinated for showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

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With our correspondent in Islamabad,

Sonia Ghezali

Thousands of protesters from Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan gathered in the city of Lahore, preparing to start a march towards the capital Islamabad.

But, as in previous days, violence quickly erupted in the procession, caught between columns of police officers who threw tear gas and fired live ammunition at the crowd, according to members of the Islamist party.

► See also:

Pakistan: deadly clashes on the sidelines of a demonstration by the radical TLP party

TLP demands the release of its leader

Bodies of lifeless militants were lying on the ground, says a Pakistani colleague on the spot. It was then that several police officers were taken to task by groups of unleashed demonstrators, tells us this journalist on the spot. “

Protesters undressed a policeman in front of me, they beat him while he was naked. The man begged them to leave him alive,

”he says. This colleague himself was beaten for having filmed acts of violence perpetrated by the demonstrators. Some had guns, he says.

The TLP demands the release of its

leader Hafiz Saad Rizvi,

imprisoned last April after the Islamist party, considered a militant organization, organized massive demonstrations across the country against France;

demonstration in reaction to the words of Emmanuel Macron who defended the publication of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

► Also to listen: Anti-France demonstrations in Pakistan: the reasons for the anger

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