Clashes between safety forces and supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan close to Islamabad on Monday left one policeman useless and dozens injured, in accordance with officers and Khan’s social gathering.
Authorities have enforced a safety lockdown for the final two days to dam the protesters, whom Khan has referred to as on to march on parliament for a sit-in demonstration to demand his launch, whereas highways into town have been barricaded.
The authorities has used delivery containers to dam main roads and streets in Islamabad, with patrols of police and paramilitary personnel in riot gear.
Officials and witnesses mentioned all public transport between cities and terminals had additionally been shut down within the jap province of Punjab to maintain away the protesters, led by members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social gathering.
“We wouldn’t let them storm the capital,” mentioned provincial Information Minister Uzma Bukhari, including that about 80 of Khan’s supporters had been arrested.
One police officer was shot and killed and a minimum of 70 others have been injured in clashes simply exterior Islamabad, she informed a press convention. There have been reviews of a number of different clashes elsewhere within the province, she mentioned.
Khan’s social gathering mentioned scores of its staff have been additionally harm.
Gatherings banned
The capital added an additional layer of safety for the arrival of the president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, on Monday, for a three-day go to, a Pakistan prime minister’s workplace assertion mentioned. A delegation led by its international minister arrived Sunday.
Khan’s social gathering accused the federal government of utilizing violent techniques to dam the protesters, saying it had arrested lots of of staff and leaders.
“They are even firing live bullets,” considered one of Khan’s aides, Shaukat Yousafzai, informed broadcaster Geo News TV.
Gatherings in Islamabad have been banned, police mentioned in an announcement. Authorities closed all faculties in Islamabad and the adjoining garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi, whereas the web and WhatsApp messaging companies additionally throttled.
The protest march, which Khan has described because the “final call,” is considered one of many his social gathering had held to hunt his launch since he was jailed in August final yr. The social gathering’s most up-to-date protest in Islamabad, early in October, turned violent.
Khan’s third spouse, Bushra Bibi, and a key aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, who’s the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, are main a march that arrived simply exterior Islamabad on Sunday evening, his social gathering mentioned.
Voted out of energy by parliament in 2022 after falling out with Pakistan’s highly effective navy, Khan faces costs starting from corruption to instigation of violence, all of which he and his social gathering deny.
The navy has an outsized position in politics and principally decides who will rule the South Asian nation of 241 million individuals.
Source: www.dailysabah.com