MURIDKE, Pakistan — At least five people were killed and dozens more wounded on Monday as police and Rangers launched a fierce crackdown on supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) marching toward Islamabad. Videos flooding social media showed scenes of burning vehicles, shattered glass, and bodies strewn across the Grand Trunk Road’s median.
Authorities say the confrontation erupted when demonstrators wielding stones, petrol bombs, spiked sticks, and even opening fire resisted orders to disperse.
In a post on X, Punjab police confirmed that Factory Area SHO Shehzad Nawaz was “martyred in the line of duty” amid the exchange of gunfire.
Law enforcement sources state that 48 officers, including 17 seriously wounded by bullet fire, were among the injured.
On the protesters’ side, TLP claims eleven of its supporters were killed, a figure not verified by independent observers, accusing the state of “unprovoked shooting.”
In a video address, TLP leader Saad Rizvi, said his followers sought only to express solidarity with Palestinians and called on the state to halt the bloodshed.
Authorities say they retrieved at least 40 government and private vehicles burned in the chaos, detained numerous activists, and reestablished control over the GT Road corridor.
By late afternoon, traffic had partially resumed, though Faizabad Interchange remained closed as a security buffer.
In Lahore, TLP-aligned lawyers protested the crackdown in front of Aiwan-e-Adl, clashing with police and demanding immediate release of detainees and accountability for the killings.
Lower courts stood empty after 11 a.m., and lawyers slapped officers and shouted slogans calling the operation “barbaric.”
Analysts warn the Muridke violence underscores deeper tensions: how to balance the right to political expression with state authority, especially when protests bleed into armed confrontation. “A democracy is judged not merely by the legitimacy of dissent but by the dignity with which it treats dissenters,” wrote a columnist in Dawn, questioning whether state force has crept into the realm of repression.
On Monday evening, the TLP camp in Muridke was reported cleared; key roads reopened, and mobile internet, previously suspended, began flickering back online.
Still, with the death toll disputed, rights groups and observers are demanding thorough, independent investigations into excessive use of force, transparency in detentions, and accountability for loss of life.
