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| India-Pakistan |
| Protests against Lahore incident turn violent |
| 2013-03-12 |
| [Dawn] Participants of some demonstrations organised by the Christian community in protest over the Badami Bagh incident turned violent on Sunday when they reportedly pelted moving vehicles with stones and tried to break open shops in the city's electronics and Zainab markets. Police lobbed teargas shells to disperse the protesting crowds and claimed to have arrested about a dozen suspects. The police said participants of a Muttahida Qaumi Movement rally were returning from the Karachi Press Club after staging a demonstration, another rally arrived in Saddar and some of its participants tried to ransack vendors outside the Zainab Market. They said the shopkeepers also reacted and formed a group to defend their businesses. Armed with sticks and batons, they confronted with the protesters, said DIG-South Shahid Hayat. Several motorcycles and many cars parked on Abdullah Haroon Road near Zainab Market were badly damaged in the violence. Two ambulances were also damaged. The protesters also threw stones on the shops and passing vehicles. The police lobbed teargas shells and managed to arrest several miscreants for resorting to violence, the DIG said. MQM leader Wasay Jalil issued a statement that the MQM rally had already dispersed peacefully when the violence broke out in the Fawwara Chowk and Zainab Market area. Earlier, participants of a protest rally coming from M.A. Jinnah Road and heading towards the Karachi Press Club also resorted to violence in the Electronic Market. The protesters attacked some vendors present at the pavement of the mobile market. However, the police resorted to baton charge on the protesters. In the third incident of the protest, members of the Christian community blocked the main Sharea Faisal at the FTC intersection and setting fire to tyres on the thoroughfare. The protesters also pelted passing vehicles with stones causing suspension of vehicular traffic on the main road. Senior police officers reached the scene and negotiated with the protesters and managed to persuade them to vacate the main road after an hour-long traffic disruption. |
| Posted by:Fred |