Lahore: At least 50 people were injured during clashes between PML-N workers and police in Pakistan’s Punjab province during rallies held in connection with the arrival of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz in Lahore.
The country’s anti-graft body – the National Accountability Bureau – arrested Nawaz and Maryam in the Evenfield properties case upon their arrival in Lahore yesterday and shifted them to Sahala Rest House Rawalpindi after declaring it sub-jail.
Both Nawaz and Maryam have been convicted by an accountability court for ten and seven years imprisonment respectively, in the Evenfield corruption case.
“At least 50 people including 20 policemen have been injured during clashes between PML-N workers, police and rangers mostly in Lahore and some adjoining districts in Punjab,” Punjab police spokesman Niyab Haider told PTI.
He said that the major clashes took place late last night between the PML-N workers, police and rangers at the Joray Pul, some five km away from Lahore airport, where the PML-N rally was stopped. The protesters pelted police and rangers with stones when the police fired tear gas on them.
“It was not understandable as to why the PML-N workers were pressing ahead to get to the airport despite the fact that Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz were arrested at the airport and flown to Islamabad on a jet,” he said.
“Some 25 PML-N workers and policemen have been injured in this clash,” he added.
In two other clashes in Lahore at Ravi bridge and Bhutta Chowk Lahore, seven policemen and ten PML-N workers suffered injuries.
PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Auranzeb told PTI that a number of its workers had been injured in clashes with police.
“Thousands of our workers who were coming from other parts of Lahore to join a rally here to welcome Nawaz and Maryam were stopped at different entry points of Lahore”, she said.
She went on to condemn the police for using force to stop PML-N workers. She also demanded immediate release of party workers after the court directive.
The Lahore high court yesterday ordered release of over 370 PML-N workers who were detained ahead of the party’s Lahore rally.
Thousands of people participated in the PML-N rally led by its president Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore that ended at midnight last night, without reaching the airport to welcome Nawaz and Maryam.
(PTI)