By News desk
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar s aide Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Sunday said that miscreants armed with petrol bombs attacked the Nawankot Police Station, taking 12 policemen hostage and leaving six injured.
Sharing a statement by the Lahore police, she said that owing to the attack, in which the attackers used petrol bombs and bottles of acid, Rangers and police personnel were trapped inside the police station.
The miscreants held the deputy superintendent of police hostage at gunpoint, along with 11 other policemen, and drove them to their markaz (comprising a mosque and madrassah) nearby.
Aside from attacking the police station and kidnapping officials, the miscreants also stole an oil tanker carrying 50,000 litres of petrol, she said.
Pakistan is witnessing violent clashes again between Islamists and the government (Source: AP)
Pakistan is witnessing violent clashes again between Islamists and the government. In the latest development, members of banned Islamist party
The
clashes erupted in Lahore on Sunday when the TLP workers took a number of police personnel hostage. Pakistan minister Sheikh Rashid later issued a video statement, saying the hostages had been freed.
The government used force against the TLP workers, irking other Islamist groups, who responded with a call for intensifying the agitation.
What is happening in Pakistan? 10 points
The clashes between the TLP workers and the police in Pakistan have their roots in caricatures published in France last year. The Islamists had termed the caricatures blasphemous and demanded the ouster of French ambassador from Pakistan.
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April 19, 2021
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar s aide Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Sunday said that miscreants armed with petrol bombs attacked the Nawankot Police Station, taking 12 policemen hostage and leaving six injured.
Sharing a statement by the Lahore police, she said that owing to the attack, in which the attackers used petrol bombs and bottles of acid, Rangers and police personnel were trapped inside the police station.
The miscreants held the deputy superintendent of police hostage at gunpoint, along with 11 other policemen, and drove them to their markaz (comprising a mosque and madrassah) nearby.
Aside from attacking the police station and kidnapping officials, the miscreants also stole an oil tanker carrying 50,000 litres of petrol, she said. Awan, confirming the same, said that any action taken was in self-defence and to rescue the police officers taken hostage.
What lies behind Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan s challenge to the state?
Mon, Apr 19 2021 17:42 IST |
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Islamabad, April 19 : Pakistan s government has been put under a severe challenge and test by an Islamist party, which has wrecked havoc in the country this week with its anti-France protests, demanding the government to expel the French Ambassador and cut all relations with the European nation over blasphemous cariacatures against the Prophet Mohammad.
Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a religious group from the conservative Barelvi school of thought, has established itself as a major changemaker in the country s polity, forming an identity for itself for launching widespread campaigns, demanding death penalty for anyone, who is held guilty of blasphemy .
ISLAMABAD AND KARACHI: Unrest has gripped Pakistan since April 12 when Saad Rizvi, leader of the recently outlawed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), was arrested in Lahore for threatening a campaign of civil disobedience against the government unless it expelled the French ambassador over the re-publication last year in France of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.
Violent protests have paralyzed major cities and highways all week, leading to the death of six police officers and injuries to more than 800, according to the government.
Photographs of police officers taken hostage by TLP supporters, with their heads, legs and arms heavily bandaged, have been posted on social media throughout the week.