LAHORE: Hundreds of people, including police officers, were injured in renewed clashes on Saturday between followers of Tahirul Qadri and the police after authorities blocked roads leading to his headquarters in Lahore.
Violence broke out earlier on Friday after hundreds of baton wielding supporters of Tahirul Qadri tried to remove shipping containers used to block the roads to his base in the upscale Model Town area.
Following Saturday's renewed clashes, the cleric called off a mass prayer procession that was due to be held on Sunday in Lahore for the victims of previous violence between his supporters and the authorities in June.
"All the roads leading to Lahore have been blocked and the police are firing at our protestors, it is not possible for my activists to reach Lahore and I don't want more bloodshed," the Qadri said in a televised press conference.
"I announce mass prayers sessions to be held in all villages, towns and cities across the country, we cannot afford to lose more lives," he said.
The cleric also claimed that seven of his followers had been shot dead by the police, a claim rejected by security forces.
"The police are firing straight at the chests of protestors and people travelling towards Lahore from various cities of Punjab", he said.
"More than 1,000 people have sustained bullet injuries and they are not even allowed to go to hospital, the Punjab government has closed all hospitals for them," Qadri told the press conference in Lahore.
The Punjab police however denied the claims and blamed supporters of the cleric for injuring policemen.
"Supporters of Tahir-ul-Qadri have waged a war against the police across Punjab and injured 300 police personnel," Nabeela Ghazanfar, a spokeswomen of the Punjab police told AFP.
She said nine police personnel were in critical condition.
"Around 500 supporters of Tahir-ul-Qadri have been arrested across Punjab and charged with anti-terrorism charges," Ghazanfar told AFP.
Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Sharif rejected Qadri's calls for "revolution" in an address to the National Security Conference in Islamabad.
"If people are trying to bring revolution to create chaos it won't be accepted," the prime minister said.
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