Pakistan opposition protest march escalates to deadly clashes

ISLAMABAD — Clashes between Pakistani security forces and supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan killed at least a dozen people, including law enforcement personnel, and injured many more in the national capital Tuesday.

The dead included at least five paramilitary and police force members and more than six supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, according to authorities and protest organizers.

The violence erupted after thousands of PTI supporters arrived in Islamabad overnight and marched toward the city’s famous public square, the D-Chowk, to stage a sit-in demonstration until their demands, including Khan’s release, were addressed.

The rally broke through barricades and headed to the protest venue before police resorted to extensive tear gas shelling.

The PTI said its supporters were marching peacefully and not involved in attacks on security forces. Instead, it accused police of firing live bullets at rally participants, resulting in multiple civilian fatalities and injuries to dozens more.

"My message to the team is to fight until the end; we will not back down until our demands are met,” Khan stated in a message posted on his official X social media account later in the evening.

Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, the former first lady, and Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which the PTI rules, led the rally into the city. Party officials said Bibi and Gandapur were “safe and sound” but did not disclose their whereabouts.

Reports and witnesses said the deaths of three law enforcement personnel and a protester took place when a police vehicle allegedly collided with a crowd of PTI activists and security forces while withdrawing from a large rally because they had run out of tear gas shells. At least two police officers also were reported killed during the clashes.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his government security officials disputed the reported ramming of the vehicle. He accused protesters of deliberately targeting security forces, killing three of them and “critically” injuring another.

"It is not a peaceful protest. It is extremism," Sharif’s office quoted him as saying.

“Pakistan cannot afford any chaos and bloodshed for achieving vested political purposes. These acts of violence are unacceptable and highly condemnable, which are bordering the limits of restraint by the law enforcement agencies,” the prime minister said in a subsequent statement.

Protesters also assaulted foreign and local media journalists covering the rally, injuring at least one of them.

The conflict zone in central Islamabad was plunged into darkness after authorities cut off the power supply while police continued to use tear gas, forcing protesters to retreat from D-Chowk late Tuesday.

Residents in nearby neighborhoods told VOA they were hearing heavy gunfire, and their homes were enveloped in thick clouds of smoke from tear gas.

Police forces were also seen deployed at the capital’s main Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital, indicating a potential medical emergency response amid reports of fresh casualties.

The PTI launched the protest march Sunday as part of its campaign to demand Khan’s release, along with that of dozens of party members allegedly held without trial. The opposition party also demanded the resignation of Sharif and his coalition government, saying the February elections that put them in power were rigged.

Over the past several days, Pakistani authorities have barricaded major roads in Islamabad, disrupted mobile internet services, closed schools, and deployed thousands of security forces in riot gear. They have also banned public rallies and blocked highways leading into the city in efforts to prevent or restrict the size of the protest march.

“You can’t keep crushing public sentiment and the public will. It’s an untenable policy,” said Michael Kugelman, who directs South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center.

“And with Pakistan increasingly resembling a train wreck in slow motion, it’s also irresponsible and dangerous. The current confrontation badly needs a political resolution,” Kugelman wrote on social media platform X.

The United States reaffirmed Monday its support for freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

“We call on protesters to demonstrate peacefully and refrain from violence,” State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller told reporters in Washington. “At the same time, we call on Pakistani authorities to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to ensure respect for Pakistan’s laws and constitution as they work to maintain law and order.”

Pakistani television channels mostly ignored filming and photographing the opposition rally because of a long-running government ban on airing Khan’s statements and images or even mentioning his name in their broadcasts.

Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, the former first lady, is leading the rally and has vowed not to leave Islamabad until all their demands are met.

Mushahid Hussain, a former Sharif party senator and the head of the Islamabad-based independent Pakistan China Institute, criticized the government for cracking down on PTI supporters.

“It’s Yesterday Once More: repeating past mistakes! Regime Stupidity & Rigidity, reinforced by monumental incompetence,” Hussain warned in a post on his X social media platform. “Recipe for Disaster! Learn from Bangladesh: People’s Will cannot be crushed with brute force!” he wrote.

Khan, prime minister from 2018 to 2022, was ousted through an opposition parliamentary vote of no-confidence after falling out with Pakistan’s powerful military.

The 72-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician has been imprisoned since August 2023, facing more than 150 criminal cases, which include charges of corruption, terrorism and instigation of violence against military properties.

Khan denies the charges, calling them politically motivated and orchestrated by the military — accusations his successor and army officials dismiss as unfounded.

The Sharif government maintains that it has nothing to do with Khan's legal challenges and that only courts can order his release.

PTI asserts that all convictions have been either overturned or suspended by appeals courts due to lack of evidence, but authorities keep coming up with new charges. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has recently called for Khan’s immediate release, saying he is being detained illegally and in breach of international law.

The military has staged several coups and has governed Pakistan for more than three decades since its independence in 1947. Khan and other prominent Pakistani politicians say that army generals influence elected governments even when not formally in power.