Nearly a thousand people detained in Pakistan after pro-Khan protests

By Charlotte Greenfield, Mushtaq Ali and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani authorities have arrested nearly a thousand supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan who stormed the capital this week to demand his release, Pakistan's police chief said on Wednesday. the city.

Khan's aides claimed, without immediately providing evidence, that hundreds of people were shot and wounded during chaotic night scenes in the heart of Islamabad as police dispersed protesters led by Khan's wife who had broken through the security barricades. They also said thousands of people had been arrested.

Islamabad police chief Ali Rizvi denied that live ammunition was used in the operation, which he said police carried out alongside paramilitary forces.

Rizvi said 600 protesters were arrested during Tuesday's operation, bringing the total to 954 since the sit-in protest began on Sunday.

He said weapons, including automatic rifles and tear gas guns, had been seized at the protest site where thousands of people had gathered. The site was cleared within a few hours.

Ali Amin Gandapur, one of Khan's top aides and chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, who was participating in the protests and fled when the operation began, accused authorities of using force excessive against demonstrators whom he described as peaceful.

According to him, “hundreds” of people were shot and injured.

Pakistan's information minister and an Islamabad police spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the allegation.

“Imran Khan's wife and I were attacked directly,” Gandapur told a news conference in Mansehra, in the province he rules.

Khan's wife, Bushra Khan, escaped unhurt. Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), had said she would address the press conference with Gandapur, but she did not show up even though the event was delayed for several hours.

PTI spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari earlier said the protest demanding Khan's release had been called off, citing what he called “the massacre”. But Gandapur said the protest would continue until Khan himself called it off.

Six dead in previous clashes

At least six people – four paramilitary soldiers and two protesters – were killed during protests before the night's clashes, according to PTI.

But the office of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi denied this information. “As of now, no deaths have been reported and allegations circulating regarding such incidents are baseless and unverified,” he said in a statement.

Visiting protest sites on Wednesday, Naqvi said law enforcement managed to evacuate demonstrators from the sit-in site and other areas of the capital.

He called on the PTI to provide any evidence of live ammunition being fired by security forces, and said it had not provided any details of the deaths of its supporters.

Geo News and ARY TV both said security forces attacked the site in central Islamabad in complete darkness and a barrage of tear gas was fired.

The protesters were almost entirely dispersed, they added.

On Wednesday, city workers were clearing debris and moving away some of the shipping containers authorities used to block roads around the capital.

The Red Zone – the fortified area that houses Parliament, the diplomatic enclave and other key buildings – was empty of protesters, but several of their vehicles were left behind, including the remains of a truck used by Bushra Khan who appeared to be charred by the flames. .

The PTI had planned to maintain a sit-in in the red zone until Khan, imprisoned since August last year, was released.

Pakistan's benchmark stock index jumped more than 5%, after falling 3.6% on Tuesday following reports of clashes.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a televised cabinet meeting that the struggling economy could not afford a crippling protest that had cost it 190 billion rupees ($680 million) a day.

($1 = 277.8000 Pakistani Rupees)

(Reporting by Mushtaq Ali, Charlotte Greenfield, Gibran Peshimam, Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Clarence Fernandez, Alex Richardson and Kevin Liffey)

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