RELIGIOUS PARTIES’ PROTEST TURNS VIOLENT
• Government calls on army to restore security in capital • Police launch operation after activists defy court order to vacate • Protesters have paralysed Islamabad for over two weeks • Agitators seek iring of law minister for ‘blasphemy’ • Interior m
ISLAMABAD: At least one policeman was killed and more than 170 persons were injured in clashes between protesters and law enforcement forces when an operation was launched to drive out agitators from the Faizabad Interchange, connecting Islamabad with Rawalpindi, occupied by them for the past 20 days.
A predominant majority of those wounded in the fracas included personnel of police and Frontier Constabulary (FC). The policeman was killed when a stone thrown by protesters hit his head.
The injured persons have been shifted to major hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Nearly 8,000 personnel of the law enforcement agencies have been deployed to disperse the protesters.
The agitators belonging to the Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah, Sunni Tehrik and Tehrik Khata-e-nubawat torched over half a dozen vehicles, mostly of police, on the IJ Principal Road Ninth Avenue near the Faizabad Interchange. They broke the outer iron gate of the nearby residence of former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in Faizabad and stoned an armoured personnel vehicle that came out of this premises.
Meanwhile, government called on army to restore security in the capital, interior ministry said.
The government on Friday issued the last warning to the protesters to vacate the Faizabad area. However, the agitators did not budge.
Earlier, they had rejected to budge during several rounds of talks with different delegations of the government and religious scholars. The security forces ired tear gas shells and rubber bullets and used water cannons to scatter the crowd. In return, the protester pelted law enforcers with stones and beat some of them with sticks and rods.
More than 100 protesters have been arrested. Security personnel have uprooted tents, destroyed protesters’ belongings. Law enforcement personnel encircled the area.
After the initial action that spanned four hours, the security forces retreated. But in the meantime, supporters of the protesters from other areas made it to the place of disturbance.
The agitators appeared to have prepared for the crackdown, which was launched on the orders of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which had issued a contempt notice to Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal for not dispersing the protesters.
Thick smoke engulfed the area for hours, which was caused by burning of tents and tear gas.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) prohibited all private TV channels from live coverage of the operation at Faizabad. Finally, it took all the channels off air in several cities. Electricity was cut off in the affected area and Internet was suspended.
Sporadic disturbances were also reported from different cities and towns of Pakistan where the supporters of the agitators protested, blocking roads and highway. Trafic on the Pakistan Motorway was also affected. Television footage showed a police vehicle on ire, heavy curtains of smoke and ires burning in the streets as oficers in heavy riot gear advanced. Protesters, some wearing gas masks, fought back in scattered battles across empty highways and surrounding neighbourhoods. The protesters have paralysed daily life in the capital, and have deied court orders to disband.
Iqbal said the protests were part of a “conspiracy” to weaken the government, which is still run by the party of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was removed by the Supreme Court in July over unreported income.
“There are attempts to create a chaos in (the) country,” Ahsan Iqbal said on state-run Pakistan TV.
Army chief called on the civilian government to end the protest while “avoiding violence from both sides.” Opposition leader Imran Khan called for early elections, saying the “incompetent and dithering” administration had allowed a “complete breakdown of governance.”
By late afternoon, Tehreek-e-labaik supporters were coming out on the streets in other Pakistani cities in support. Police ired tear gas in Karachi, the southern port that is Pakistan’s largest city, to try to disperse about 500 demonstrators near the airport.
Outside the northwestern city of Peshawar, about 300 protesters blocked the motorway to Islamabad and started attacking vehicles with stones and sticks.