ISLAMABAD: At least eight supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were killed and dozens of others injured in Islamabad following what the party said was a sweeping crackdown overnight by security forces to disperse protesters demanding the release of jailed former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan.
Following the crackdown, Imran’s party ended its agitation but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur addressed a press conference in his province on Wednesday saying the protest would go on. “Until Imran Khan’s call, this sit-in will go on,” he said without elaborating where it would be held. PTI has been in govt in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Thousands of demonstrators, led by Imran’s wife Bushra Bibi, and Gandapur, had gathered in the capital on Tuesday vowing to stage a sit-in until their demands were met, including the release of political prisoners. Khan and many other PTI leaders and workers have been in jail for over a year on charges that they claim are politically motivated.
Security forces launched a massive crackdown before midnight Tuesday after failing to stop protesters from marching to D-Chowk, a public square in Islamabad’s high-security red zone. In the evening authorities forced surrounding stores, cafes and markets to shut and then plunged the protest venue into darkness by switching off streetlights. Eyewitnesses said indiscriminate firing and teargas shelling, which started after 11pm and continued for about two hours, forced the PTI supporters, mostly Pashtuns from the northwest, to retreat.
PTI claimed eight of its supporters had died in the late-night clashes and “hundreds” more were feared to have been killed. The govt stated three paramilitary troops and one policeman had died since the PTI launched its protest on Sunday. Islamabad’s police chief told media more than 900 people had been arrested in Tuesday’s raid, in which there were dozens of Afghan nationals.
Sources at Islamabad’s two public hospitals said five civilians had died of gunshot wounds and dozens had been injured. According to PTI workers, they had picked up three bodies from the protest site.
Information minister Attaullah Tarar said the protesters had fled in disarray, leaving behind vehicles, and even their shoes and clothes.
PTI said in a post on social media that a “massacre has unfolded in Pakistan at the hands of security forces”. It accused the armed security forces of launching a violent assault on peaceful PTI protesters, firing live rounds with the intent to kill as many people as possible. It went on to compare last night’s clashes to the violence in the then East Pakistan in 1971. “The rulers have learned nothing from history and are prepared to destroy the country to cling to their illegitimate power,” the post stated. “With hundreds dead and countless injured, the interior minister’s threat to kill, and then the declaration of ‘victory’ over slaughtered innocents is enough evidence of the regime’s inhumanity,” it added.
On Wednesday morning, the heavily fortified red zone was empty of protesters but dozens of smashed vehicles, including the charred remains of a truck from which Imran’s wife had been leading the protest, portrayed a grim picture.