PML-N protest went wiled on Friday, making Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road and the areas that surround it into a battlefield for party workers and police. The PML-N workers blocked roads and streets, burnt tyres, and showered stones and bricks on police and private vehicles on the third consecutive day of their agitation against a Supreme Court (SC) order disqualifying their leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif from electoral process.
Shouting anti-government, they ran amok forcing the police to baton-charge and tear-gas them to break up the tension. They damaged electricity poles, private hoardings and security barriers.
Mukhtar has a close shave: They attacked vehicle of Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar; threw stones on it near Dhoke Kala Khan on Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road. The defence minister had a close shave as his driver sped off the troubled spot on time. Police and law enforcement agencies succeeded to take the minister to a safe place.
PML-N convoy attacked: PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq's convoy also came under attack by some unknown people when he tried to go to Liaquat Bagh to lay floral wreath at Benazir Bhutto's monument. Rare windscreen of his jeep was damaged. PPP leaders and Police high-ups advised him not to go there because PPP workers were infuriated over burning of BB portrait by PML-N workers on Wednesday. Faizabad violence: In the evening, stick-wielding people took over Faizabad, blocking all traffic, attempted to torch three buses and ransacked the market. The police retaliated and succeeded in routing the hoodlums.
Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road remained the centre of all protesters, where PML-N leaders Raja Zafarul Haq, Hanif Abbasi, Haji Pervaiz, Malik Abrar, Yasir Hafeez, Sheryar Riaz, Sardar Nasim and others led a mega rally of hundreds of people. The protesters blocked a road from Raja Bazaar to Committee Chowk. They held up sticks, burnt tyres and effigies of President Asif Ali Zardari. They shouted slogans against the government and the judiciary, demanding the SC to reverse its decision. The PML-N workers also attacked police vehicles at different places.
Raja Bazaar, Iqbal Road, Bohar Bazaar, Liaquat Road, DAV College Road and Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road from Liaquat Bagh to Fiazabad remained highly tense. Armoured Personnel Vehicles (APVs) were seen moving in disturbed areas where heavy deployment of police and personnel of other law-enforcement agencies was made. Clashes were also reported in various parts of the city between the PPP and PML-N workers.
The tension escalated after Friday prayers when the PML-N workers thronged roads and starting damaging buildings and steel-n-glass shopping malls. The police told fuel stations on Liaquat Road, Ratta Road, Gunjmandi, Bagh Sardarn, Asghar Mall Road to close down because of violence.