At least five police and paramilitary personnel have been killed and dozens of people injured in Pakistan as thousands of supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan forced their way through security barriers and entered the capital Islamabad on Tuesday morning.
Authorities have enforced a security lockdown in the capital for the last three days after Khan called for supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to march on parliament for a sit-in demonstration to demand his release.
By Tuesday morning, over 100,000 of Khan’s supporters had broken through the barriers and entered Islamabad, where they were marching toward the “red zone”, an area in the centre of the capital where the parliament and other diplomatic buildings are located. The area resembled a fortress of barriers, shipping containers and police personnel in riot gear.
The protesters were led by Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who was recently released from prison, and Khan’s key aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, who is the chief minister of PTI stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Tens of thousands more were expected to join from neighbouring Punjab and Rawalpindi.
Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi had earlier warned that Khan’s supporters would not be allowed to reach the parliament and said the government will be forced to use “extreme” steps if they attempted to, which could include imposing a curfew or deploying army troops. “We will not let them cross our red lines,” he said.
Naqvi said the government had offered PTI a field outside Islamabad to hold their protest and that the offer had been taken to Khan in his jail cell, but they were still waiting a response.
PTI’s main demand for the protest is for Khan to be released, alleging that the former prime minister is being held as a political prisoner and that the hundreds of charges against him are trumped up by his political opponents.
Voted out of power by parliament in 2022 after he fell out with Pakistan’s powerful military, Khan faces charges ranging from corruption to instigation of violence, all of which he and his party deny.
The government, led by prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, used a heavy handed response in a bid to prevent Khan’s supporters reaching the capital. Highways into Islamabad were blocked with shipping containers and thousands of police and paramilitary lined the streets, firing rubber bullets and teargas at the protesters. Public transport into the city was also shut down to keep Khan’s supporters away.
One police officer was shot and killed in the clashes while at least 119 others were injured, and 22 police vehicles were torched in clashes just outside Islamabad and elsewhere in the Punjab province, provincial police chief Usman Anwar said. Two officers were in critical condition, he said.
Another four Rangers paramilitary officers were killed on the outskirts of Islamabad, reportedly when they were run over by a car driven by PTI protesters.
Scores of PTI supporters were also injured and Khan’s party accused the government of using excessive violence. “They are even firing live bullets,” one of Khan’s aides, Shaukat Yousafzai, told Geo News.
Provincial information minister Uzma Bukhari said about 80 of Khan’s supporters had been arrested but PTI claimed that about 5,000 had been picked up by police as they marched to Islamabad from across the country.
Gatherings in Islamabad have been banned, while all schools in the capital and the adjacent city of Rawalpindi were to remain closed on Monday and Tuesday, the authorities said.
The protest march, which Khan has described as the “final call”, is one of many his party had held to seek his release since he was jailed in August last year. The party’s most recent protest in Islamabad, early in October, turned violent.
