Thousands of PTI supporters hold anti-government protest in Lahore

LAHORE: Supporters of the party of Pakistan’s Imran Khan shut down major roads in the eastern city of Lahore on Monday in the latest round of protests against the government.
Thousands of followers of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) gathered at different junctions on major roads in the city and burned tires, forcing the suspension of public transport.
Khan, a star cricketer turned politician, claims the 2013 general election which brought Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to power was rigged. He wants Sharif, whose power base lies in Lahore, to resign.
Local and foreign observers, however, have rated the polls as credible.
The Punjab provincial government, which is run by Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party, accused Khan’s supporters of reneging on an agreement to let ambulances through their barricades.
Salman Rafique, health adviser to the Punjab chief minister, told AFP that three people, including two infants, had died in ambulances stuck in traffic caused by the protests.
A doctor in Lahore children’s hospital said they received a body of a newborn baby but the cause of death was not clear.
PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi denied the allegations, insisting that party workers had not stopped ambulances taking patients to hospitals.
Thousands of police were on the streets to try to prevent violence, following clashes at a similar protest in the city of Faisalabad last week.
“A contingent of 15,000 police personnel have been deployed in the city to avoid any untoward incident,” senior police official Haider Ashraf told AFP.
Khan has vowed to paralyze major cities around the country as part of his efforts to topple Sharif’s government.