Islamabad: At least eight supporters Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were killed and dozens of others injured in a massive overnight crackdown by security forces to disperse protesters demanding the release of jailed former prime minister and PTI chief in Islamabad. imran khan,
After the action, Imran’s party ended its movement but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, addressing a press conference in his province on Wednesday, said the protests would continue. “Till Imran Khan’s call, this protest will continue,” he said without specifying where it would be held. PTI has been in the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Thousands of protesters, led by Imran’s wife Bushra Bibi and Gandapur, had gathered in the capital on Tuesday and vowed to hold a protest until their demands, including the release of political prisoners, are met. Khan and several other PTI leaders and activists have been in jail for more than a year on charges they claim are politically motivated.
Security forces launched a massive crackdown just before midnight on Tuesday after they failed to stop protesters from marching to D-Chowk, a public square in Islamabad’s high-security red zone. In the evening, authorities forcibly closed nearby shops, cafes and markets and then turned off the street lights, plunging the protest site into darkness. Eyewitnesses said that the indiscriminate firing and teargas shelling, which began after 11 pm and continued for about two hours, forced the PTI supporters, mostly Pashtuns from the northwest, to retreat.
PTI claimed that eight of its supporters were killed in the late night clashes and “hundreds” more were feared dead. The government said three paramilitary personnel and one policeman had been killed since the PTI began its protests on Sunday. Islamabad’s police chief told the media that more than 900 people were arrested in Tuesday’s raid, including dozens of Afghan citizens.
Sources at two public hospitals in Islamabad said five civilians were killed by gunfire and dozens were injured. According to PTI workers, they picked up three bodies from the protest site.
Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said protesters fled leaving behind vehicles and even their shoes and clothes.
PTI said in a post on social media that a massacre has taken place at the hands of security forces in Pakistan. It accused the armed security forces of violently attacking peaceful PTI protesters and firing live rounds with the intention of killing as many people as possible. It compared last night’s clashes with the violence in 1971 in the then East Pakistan. “The rulers have learned nothing from history and are ready to destroy the country to hold on to their illegitimate power,” the post said. It said, “With hundreds of deaths and countless injuries, the threat of killing the interior minister, and then declaring ‘victory’ over the innocent people killed is enough evidence of the inhumanity of the regime.”
On Wednesday morning, the heavily fortified Red Zone was empty of protesters, but dozens of damaged vehicles, including the charred remains of the truck carrying Imran’s wife leading the protests, painted a grim picture.