Police came down hard on protesting lawyers and arrested hundreds of anti-government protesters on Monday as demonstrations erupted countrywide against the imposition of emergency rule. Police used baton-charges to quell demonstrations by lawyers at courts in Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Multan. Hundreds of opposition activists, lawyers, civil society members and some journalists were arrested.Lahore: The biggest protest was in Lahore, where lawyers clashed with police at the Lahore High Court building. Some 2,000 lawyers gathered at the court building and planned to march along The Mall to the Punjab Assembly.
However, large numbers of police deployed outside the LHC warned the lawyers not to exit the court premises as demonstrations were banned. However, this did not deter the lawyers, and a crowd of black coats tried to rush out the LHC gate, which was blocked by the police. A shoving match ensued and clashes broke out. Lawyers pelted police with stones, and police retaliated with baton-charges and volleys of teargas shells. The police charged inside the LHC premises and chased the lawyers, up to 250 of whom were dragged outside and bundled into police vans. The protesting lawyers had also tried to ransack the chambers of the LHC chief justice. There were several injuries in the clashes on both sides.