• Dozens arrested, several injured as armoured vehicles, water cannon used to disperse charged crowd
• Police say inspector martyred; around 50 cops badly injured in violent clashes
• Conflicting reports emerge about fate of TLP chief; IGP says Saad Rizvi ‘not in custody’
• Second-tier leaders call on TLP supporters to converge on Lahore for protest on 17th
LAHORE: The fate of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Saad Rizvi remained shrouded in mystery after law enforcement agencies launched a sweeping pre-dawn operation on Monday to dismantle the religious party’s protest camp in Muridke, triggering violent clashes, widespread chaos and dozens of arrests.
The operation, which began around 3:30am, quickly spiralled into one of the most serious confrontations between police and TLP in recent months, continuing for nearly six hours.
According to officials, some 1,500 police personnel in full anti-riot gear, supported by four armoured personnel carriers and water cannons, surrounded the protest camp along the GT Road.
By morning, authorities said they had detained hundreds of demonstrators, though exact figures remained unclear.
There was, however, a significant discrepancy in casualty reports, with local media reporting a few deaths and dozens of injuries, while social media was rife with exaggerated claims.
Nevertheless, Punjab Police confirmed the death of Inspector Shehzad Nawaz, who they said was shot during the operation. Local media reports said that at least four people, including the police officer, had been killed and 56 others injured.
Unverified social media posts, however, claimed the toll among TLP supporters was far higher, with some alleging “dozens if not hundreds” of deaths — claims dismissed by Punjab’s police chief, Dr Usman Anwar, as “baseless rumours” and “a conspiracy to evoke public sympathy”.
Adding to the uncertainty were unverified reports about the fate of Saad Rizvi, which spread rapidly across social media and WhatsApp groups on Monday. Several posts alleged that Mr Rizvi had been shot and was in critical condition, while other accounts claimed that he had been taken into custody.
Interestingly, despite its active online presence, the TLP’s official accounts and spokespersons remained conspicuously silent on the matter, neither confirming nor denying rumours about their leader’s condition or whereabouts.
Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar confirmed to Dawn.com that TLP chief Saad Rizvi had not been arrested, nor injured in Monday morning’s clashes.
Ripples across the country
By mid-morning, the unrest had spread to several other parts of the country. In Lahore, hundreds of TLP supporters took to the streets, blocking key intersections and damaging vehicles in protest at what they called a “brutal crackdown”.
In Burewala, five police officers, including a deputy superintendent, were injured when TLP activists clashed with local law enforcers.
In Faisalabad, demonstrators blocked the Chenab Chowk for nearly two hours, forcing the Government College University Faisalabad to postpone its scheduled examinations.
Further south, dozens of protesters obstructed the national highway at Mian Channu for half an hour, while in Bahawalnagar, TLP members blocked the Bahawalnagar–Head Sulemanki Road near Minchinabad, prompting another round of arrests and the registration of criminal cases under multiple charges.
In Karachi, similar scenes played out as TLP activists organised protests in North Karachi and New Karachi to denounce the police action in Punjab. Fear and uncertainty gripped the city as demonstrators blocked major thoroughfares and clashed with police.
West Zone deputy inspector general Irfan Ali Baloch said protesters had set up sit-ins at 4-K Chowrangi and Sindhi Hotel, where they blocked roads and attacked police with stones, injuring two constables.
“The police responded with tear gas and arrested five of them,” he told Dawn. “The situation was brought under control and traffic resumed.”
Late on Monday night, Mufti Wazeer Ahmad Rizvi, a member of the TLP’s Majlis-e-Shura (executive committee), released a video message urging party supporters to end their agitation, clear all roads, and await further instructions. “We will announce our next strategy soon,” he said.
Wazir Ahmad Rizvi, the group’s Balochistan emir, also called on protesters to disperse and converge on Lahore’s Data Darbar shrine on Oct 17.
Stalled negotiations
Explaining why an operation was launched against TLP workers, senior police officials said the crackdown had initially been halted after reports of renewed negotiations between the government and the TLP leadership. However, the talks quickly broke down.
“The TLP’s demands were completely unreasonable,” said a senior Punjab police officer involved in the operation. “They wanted security forces withdrawn from the entire route to Islamabad and insisted that all arrested workers be released unconditionally.”
According to the official, two rounds of talks were held between the early hours of Tuesday and Saturday night, but no progress was made.
When the protesters began to march towards Islamabad despite repeated warnings, police deployed anti-riot units to block their advance. The situation escalated when “armed men among the protesters opened fire on police”, critically injuring Inspector Nawaz.
‘State brutality’
Following the heavy-handed government response, JUI-F’s leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman condemned the government’s use of force against Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) activists.
Describing the operation as “state brutality”, Maulana asserted that the right to peaceful protest is fundamental for every citizen, criticising the government’s violent crackdown on TLP demonstrators as unacceptable. Maulana suggested that the government could have resolved the issue through dialogue rather than resorting to force.
However, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif expressed a different perspective on the events, calling the protests “an insult to religion”.
“Forming armed groups in the name of religion, blocking roads and holding the public hostage is an insult to religion. For two years, tyranny and a festival of blood were played out in Gaza, yet no one remembers any protests. When the ceasefire happened there, the protests began. The time has come to stop holding our society hostage… through violence in the name of religion,” he wrote on X.
Imtiaz Ali in Karachi and Kalbe Ali in Islamabad also contributed to this report
Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2025
