LAHORE, Oct 31: Police thrashed and arrested 19 PML-N workers when they attempted to hold a protest demonstration on The Mall.

A large number of activists, including women, gathered outside the Masjid-i-Shuhada and blocked traffic on The Mall to protest the arrest of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, the president of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy.

Police contingent deployed near Faisal Chowk rushed to the spot and tried to prevent the workers from protest, which, they said, was banned by the government.

However, the party workers started chanting slogans against the government and President Pervez Musharraf. The police then encircled the workers and started dragging them into police vans.

The police thrashed the resisting protesters during which some of them suffered minor injuries. Clothes of several people were torn in the clash.

In all, 19 of the workers were taken into custody and driven to the Civil Lines police station. The others managed to escape.

Later, the arrested women were shifted to the Racecourse police lock-ups. No case was registered against them till the filing of this report at night.

The police claimed that they would be released some time at night.