DHAKA: Anti-government protesters armed with rocks and wooden clubs clashed with police in Islamabad on Monday, hours after the powerful army called for a peaceful resolution to the political crisis rocking Pakistan.

Opposition groups marched to the capital on August 15 in a bid to topple prime minister Nawaz Sharif, triggering a crisis that has raised the spectre of military intervention in a country that has been ruled for half its history by the army.

The army urged the government and protesters to settle their differences peacefully on Sunday night, but warned it was ‘committed to playing its part in ensuring security of the state’, after clashes left three dead.

Violence began on Saturday night when followers of former cricketer Imran Khan and populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri tried to storm Sharif’s official residence.

Fresh clashes erupted on Monday morning as heavy rain fell on the capital, as more than 3,000 demonstrators again tried to march on the building, a journalist at the scene said, reports The Times of India.

Protesters pelted riot police with stones and some smashed up motorbikes with wooden clubs. Police tried to respond with teargas but the heavy rain appeared to make it ineffective.

BDST: 1215 HRS, AUG 31, 2014