LAHORE: The Punjab police have rooted out camps set up in Lahore by the Difaa-i-Pakistan Council (DPC) for a protest march against restoration of Nato supplies to Afghanistan.

A large contingent of police dismantled the two camps on Friday, one at the Regal Chowk on Mall Road and the other at Faisal Chowk. According to police officials, there is no permission for anyone to set up any sort of protest camp on Mall Road.

Meanwhile, the DPC has also alleged that the additional police security provided to Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa, at his Jauhar Town residence has been withdrawn.

The council had earlier announced it would hold a long march from Lahore to Islamabad on July 8 in protest of the Nato supply resumption.

“A committee has been formed to ask all other political and religious parties to join the long march to stop the Nato supplies,” said DPC chief Maulana Samiul Haq at a press conference on Wednesday, terming the government’s decision to unblock ground supply routes to Afghanistan an “undemocratic decision of a democratic government”.

Meanwhile, at the council’s appeal, the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Karachi was staging a protest rally against the government’s decision today. The rally was expected to start after Friday prayers and march from the city’s Jamia Masjid Binnori Town to Mazar-i-Quaid.

Meanwhile, similar protests were being held by the council in Islamabad on Friday.