DHAKA: Clashes have erupted in Pakistan after an attack on a convoy of protesters heading to the capital Islamabad, led by opposition politician Imran Khan.

A crowd pelted the convoy with stones in the city of Gujranwala. Officials from Imran’s party said his vehicle was also shot at but he was not hurt.

This protest is being seen as the strongest challenge to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif since he took office, reports the BBC.

Anti-government cleric Tahirul Qadri is also leading a convoy to the capital.

In a post on its Facebook Page, Khan’s PTI party alleged that a group of supporters of the governing PML-N party also fired on the huge bullet-proof container carrying him.

The government has denied that its party workers instigated any violence and denounced the marches as an attempt to derail democracy.

Nawaz Sharif took office in 2013 in what was Pakistan’s first peaceful democratic transfer of power from one civilian government to another.

BDST: 1917 HRS, AUG 15, 2104