Violent rally in Pakistan leaves 4 police, 2 Islamists dead

By BABAR DOGAR and MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say violence at an anti-France Islamist rally in eastern Pakistan has left at least four police officers and two demonstrators dead. The government deployed paramilitary troops to restore order. Thousands of supporters of a radical Islamist party rallied Wednesday on a highway in the town of Sadhuke as they marched toward the capital Islamabad. They demanded the expulsion of France’s envoy to Pakistan over publication of caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in France. The violence erupted a day after the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan said it would not accept the Islamists’ demand to close the French Embassy and expel the French envoy.