All shopping centres, including yarn and cloth markets, sarafa bazaar and electronic shops remained closed in eight bazaars around the Clock Tower. However, business was as usual at shops that were away from troubled points. The law and order situation brought city's life to a standstill. The lawyers' community also staged boycott of court attendance, while prison vehicles could not reach courts due to rising tensions.
The dead was identified as Haq Nawaz. He had received a bullet shot in his abdomen and died on way to hospital. Three PTI workers were fired upon and injured allegedly by ruling party supporters at Novelty Bridge.
The Chowk Clock Tower, Millat Chowk, Narwala Chowk, Sargodha Road, Jhang Road, Summandri Road and other areas situated on link roads turned into a battlefield when a large number of PTI and PML-N supporters pelted each other with stones, prompting riot police to use water cannons and fire shots in air. Addressing protestors at Novelty Chowk, President PTI Punjab Ejaz Chaudhry blamed the ruling party for 'hooliganism' and 'state terrorism' in country's major industrial city known as stronghold of PML-N. "They must be ashamed of telling a lie. The PML-N supporters opened fire on our peaceful and unarmed protestors at behest of Rana Sana Ullah Khan and Abid Sher Ali," he claimed. Talking to newsmen, PTI's Punjab President said the party holds District Co-ordination Officer (DCO) Faisalabad Noor Ul Amin Mengal, Rana Sanaullah and his son-in-law accountable for the killing of its worker. He announced that PTI would observe a day of mourning in Faisalabad tomorrow (today).
Rana Sana Ullah Khan said that PTI's top leadership including Sheikh Rashid are responsible for violence in Faisalabad. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leaders condemned violence and called upon the government and the PTI to show restraint and demanded an inquiry into clashes. They observed that the Punjab government and district administration committed a blunder by allowing PML-N workers to confront workers of PTI with sticks and batons.
AFP adds: The death could spark further violence and reinvigorate the opposition movement. It received a boost Monday when a judge ordered a vote audit in a key constituency, a longstanding demand of Khan. He has said it will highlight systemic flaws in the 2013 general election which brought Sharif's party to power.
TV footage showed PTI workers clashing with supporters of Sharif as well as with riot police, who baton-charged them as parts of Faisalabad came to a standstill. Nabeela Ghazanfar, a spokeswoman for police in Punjab province, told AFP: "One protester has been killed and five others injured including two policemen. "The Punjab police chief has issued strict orders not to let anybody take the law into their hands."
A doctor in a Faisalabad hospital confirmed the death from bullet wounds and said five wounded were being treated. A PTI official on the ground who asked that his name be withheld also said the worker had been shot. TV channels showed a man in civilian clothes wielding a pistol at the rally and blamed him for the killing. Khan said supporters of Sharif's party carried out the attack and lashed out at police.
"Peaceful protest is our right and it's the duty of the state to provide security but the government tried to provoke our protesters," the cricketer turned politician told reporters outside his home in Islamabad. "Our workers were being shot at in the presence of the police," he continued, adding he would address supporters in Faisalabad later Monday evening.
Information Minister Pervez Rashid however blamed Khan for "inciting the people to violence", as smaller anti-government demonstrations broke out in Islamabad and the central city of Multan. The clashes came as an election tribunal judge in the eastern city of Lahore accepted Khan's plea for a vote audit in the constituency of the speaker of the national parliament.