Pakistani police clash with crowd

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani police charged with batons and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters marching toward the prime minister’s official residence and the adjacent parliament building in Islamabad on Saturday, blanketing the route with clouds of white smoke and scattering demonstrators. Nearly 125 people were injured in the clashes between police and demonstrators demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Scores of protesters, mainly women carrying hammers and iron rods, broke down a fence outside the parliament building, enabling hundreds of people to enter the lawns and parking area, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene and Pakistani television reports.

Islamabad police chief Khalid Khattak said the protesters were armed with big hammers, wire cutters and axes, and even had a crane.

The protest leaders, cricket-legend-turned politician Imran Khan and anti-government cleric Tahirul Qadri, had called on supporters staging a sit-in for days outside the parliament building to march on the prime minister’s residence and the legislative chamber. About 20,000 police in riot gear were deployed to block them.

Khan and Qadri, a dual Pakistani-Canadian citizen with a wide following, allege that Sharif won the 2013 election because of massive voter fraud and should step down. They have demanded reforms in Pakistan’s electoral system to prevent voter fraud.