A sit-in protestor is arrested by police during an operation against the activists of a religious group in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, on Nov. 25, 2017. Pakistani police on Saturday morning began to carry out operation against the activists of a religious group, who launched a sit-in protest that blocked the main highway to the capital Islamabad for 20 days. (Xinhua/Liu Tian)
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani police on Saturday morning began to carry out operation against the activists of a religious group, who launched a sit-in protest that blocked the main highway to the capital Islamabad for 20 days.
The Islamabad police and Frontier Constabulary (FC), a force which is deployed for the security of Islamabad, launched the operation Saturday morning after the last warning to the protesters issued late Friday to disperse.
Nearly 20 people, both the law enforcement agencies and the protesters, were injured during the clashes and were brought to a main hospital in Islamabad.
Witnesses said that the protesters initially resisted the police action and pelted stones at the raiding parties. The police used tear gas shells to disperse the protesters. The law enforcement agencies arrested dozens of protesters.
Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Islamabad High Court had issued orders to the government to disperse the protesters as the sit-in had disturbed the lives of the hundreds of thousands of the people in Islamabad and the nearby Rawalpindi.
According to local reports, roughly 2,000 protestors were in the sit-in site of Faizabad since Nov. 8, and about 8,500 police and FC forces were deployed at the place for the operation.
Security forces have surrounded the protesters from all sides and fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters. In response, the protesters throw stones at the security forces.
The operation against the protesters is still underway.
