Pakistani police said Monday they launched a clearance operation against a hardline Islamist party after failed negotiations to call off an anti-Israel protest, with five killed in the violence, including one policeman.
The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) began its protests in Lahore on Thursday and planned to march to the US embassy in Islamabad, leading authorities to block roads between the two cities and shut down the internet.
After negotiations between TLP and the government collapsed on Sunday, authorities launched a "dispersal operation" in Muridke, a town north of Lahore, where more than 7,000 supporters had reached in their march to the capital.
Police said workers of TLP "resorted to stone pelting, spiked batons, and petrol bombs" and opened "indiscriminate fire, resulting in casualties among civilians and law enforcement personnel".
TLP has been behind some of Pakistan's most violent protests, and frequently calls on the government to expel Western ambassadors.
"One police officer and four civilians died," the police statement said, adding that several rioters had been arrested while 48 law enforcement personnel and eight civilians were injured.
The TLP had originally said the protests were organised to voice its opposition to the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, backed by Pakistan, after two years of war in Gaza.
It later said the protest was in solidarity with Palestinians.
"There were police personnel besieging us. They were firing bullets and tear gas. They kept shooting continuously for three to four hours," said Abou Sufian, a TLP protester.
After the operation, charred cars, including the TLP leader's main truck, were left in the street.
"There were no real negotiations. The government just used the word 'negotiation' to give the impression to the general public that they were holding a dialogue," Allama Irfan, a senior member of TLP told AFP.
Shipping containers were being placed as barriers across major roads in the capital in anticipation of the protesters' arrival.
As many as 50 police officers were injured in Friday's clashes, a senior police official told AFP, while TLP claims that some of its members had been killed could not be verified independently.
Israel declared a ceasefire and began pulling back its troops at around noon on Friday, as tens of thousands of Palestinians began walking back towards their devastated homes.
The operation came at a time when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reached Egypt to attend the signing ceremony of the Gaza peace plan.
"Today's ceremony marks the closing of a genocidal chapter, one that the international community must ensure is never repeated anywhere again," Sharif wrote on X.
Pakistan has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel.
