All roads leading to the residence of Nawaz Sharif have been closed and police commandos deployed to stop hundreds of protesters from reaching the house of the ousted prime minister of Pakistan, a police officer said on Saturday.
About 2,000 activists of Tehreek-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwwat, Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) and the Sunni Tehreek Pakistan (ST) for more than two weeks have been blocking the Islamabad Expressway and Murree Road that connect Islamabad with its only airport and the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
The protesters demand the resignation of law minister Zahid Hamid for changes made about Khatm-i-Nabuwwat or finality of prophethood oath in the Elections Act 2017 passed in September.
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"We have deployed elite police commandos on the roads leading to the residence of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at Jati Umra Raiwind. Heavy contingent of police has also been deployed on all points where demonstration is taking place in the city," a senior Lahore police officer told PTI.
He said Sharif and his family members have been advised not to travel by road in the current situation.
The officer also said an additional police force had been sent to Shahdara to rescue the lives of the policemen besieged by the protesters there.
The protesters besieged the police station, forcing the policemen to lock themselves up from inside.
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They also burnt the police vehicles outside the police station in Shahdara.
Sharif today presided over a meeting at Jati Umra residence which was also attended by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
They discussed the situation arising out of the protests in the country.
"Mr Abbasi has ordered media black out on the instruction of Nawaz Sharif," a party source said.
He said Sharif was of the view that if the police action and protests were continued to be broadcast, violence will spread across the country and it will be difficult for the government to control it.
The protesters have cut off Lahore from the rest of the country by staging demonstration on G T Road, motorway and railway lines that connects the city with other parts of the country.
They also blocked a number of roads in the city, making life miserable for people who virtually are confined to their residences or stuck on the roads.
The protesters from the barelvi sect have been staging sit-ins in Lahore and other parts of the country following police action in Islamabad that left scores of protesters and policemen injured.
Police and paramilitary troops launched an operation today to end the 20-day long Faizabad sit-in of the protesters who had cut off Islamabad from other parts of the country.
A five-member bench of the Supreme Court on July 28 had disqualified Sharif as Prime Minister of Pakistan in its verdict on the Panama Papers case.
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PTI
