Thousands of protesters marched across Pakistan on Thursday, torching pictures of President Asif Ali Zardari as the Pakistani police sealed off the Punjab provincial parliament and detained 30 lawmakers. Security officials locked the gates of the assembly, laid coils of barbed wire to prevent entry and barricaded roads as hundreds of protesters shouted against Zardari, punching their fists in the air, witnesses said.
The protesters torched two large hoardings showing Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and beat pictures of Zardari with sticks and shoes before setting them ablaze.
Many shops across the country have closed and the government, alarmed about the mobs' reaction to the court ruling, has deployed riot police. "The Punjab government has requested the deployment of the Rangers and we have accepted their request," a spokesman for the interior ministry told AFP, referring to a paramilitary force.
Lawyers and opposition activists heeded a call from Sharif for
Rallies were also reported in Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Muzaffarabad, as well as in 15 districts in Punjab.
Zardari and Nawaz Sharif have long fought over the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda militancy.
The government later Wednesday suspended the provincial parliament based in Lahore, Pakistan's second biggest city, bringing it under Islamabad's direct control.
Analysts say Pakistan, reeling from extremist attacks that have killed more than 1,600 people in less than two years, can ill afford a showdown. "Police bundled the lawmakers into waiting vans and drove them to an unknown place," Rana Mashhud, the regional parliament's deputy speaker, told AFP. Police said the deputies would be released later.