State repression in Pakistan threatens continued unrest

Protesters in support of Imran Khan's PTI party were met with obstruction and violence, sparking growing public outrage.

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Police officers fire tear gas shells to disperse supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party during a protest demanding the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in the red zone of Islamabad, November 26, 2024.

(Aamir Qureshi / AFP)

Islamabad On the afternoon of Tuesday, November 26, supporters of incarcerated former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared to have won a decisive victory. Mobilized by Khan's wife, a mysterious healer named Bushra, thousands of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) political workers marched on the capital to demand his release. Their goal was to reach D-Chowk, a roundabout in Islamabad's government district that has been compared to Egypt's Tahrir Square, where they planned to stage a sit-in and pressure the government. Against all odds, they reached their destination.

Ahead of the protest, termed a last call by PTI officials, the government had put in place a number of obstacles to deter protesters. The twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been placed on lockdown, with shipping containers placed on all major roads. Highways connecting Islamabad to the rest of the country were also closed to limit the number of protesters entering the capital. Schools and colleges were closed and Section 144, a colonial-era law banning public gatherings, was duly imposed.

The latest appeal protest was the latest in a series of clashes between the PTI and the state after the former cricketer-turned-politician was removed in a military-sponsored no-confidence vote in April 2022. Although he is not the first politician to run afoul of his army of do-gooders, Khan's ability to keep his vote bank intact while locked in a prison cell has caused much embarrassment to his political rivals and to the army, notably in February, when candidates affiliated with the PTI won a series of resounding victories in the elections.

On Tuesday, after overcoming all obstacles in their path, Khan's supporters were in a jubilant mood. But between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., the street lights in the area were turned off and the police began a clean-up operation. Much of what happened next remains a mystery. According to PTI, snipers deployed on the roofs of high-rise buildings in the area began shooting at protesters, leading to the deaths of more than 270 people. The government says, however, that no live bullets were fired and that the crowd dispersed when law enforcement began making arrests.

The PTI was trying to search for bodies here and there, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said at an official press conference. They are also used to visiting morgues, and we have seen in the past that they own the funerals of ordinary citizens.

What is certain is that a few hours after the lights went out, the area was cleared and the demonstration suppressed. Bushra herself hurriedly fled the scene and is yet to reappear in public. Meanwhile, police have arrested more than 4,000 people, a number expected to rise further as the crackdown on the PTI continues.

Current number

Despite the government's claims, it is also clear that some people were shot dead on site. Although the figures are impossible to verify at this stage, a doctor who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity claimed he had never performed so many surgeries for gunshot wounds in a single night. Some of the injured were in such critical condition that we had to perform surgery immediately instead of waiting for anesthesia, he said.

Meanwhile, family members of those killed or injured in the shootings have come forward and given gripping accounts of state brutality. Such is the weight of anecdotal evidence that even some of Khan's opponents have agreed that guns were used. Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a staunch critic of Imran Khan and the PTI, claimed that at least two people from his own constituency were murdered during the protest. How can we justify shooting demonstrators? he told local television. And on top of that, the government has the audacity to claim that no one died. Let hospitals publish their records.

There was a heavy police presence in the hospitals closest to the scene, amid accusations of falsification of records and intimidation. On Thursday, November 28, intelligence agents abducted well-known investigative journalist Matiullah Jan from the parking lot of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, the hospital closest to the PTI protest, where he had gone to find out the number of deaths during the repression.

Hours after Jan's kidnapping, he was charged with possession of 246 grams of crystal methamphetamine and sent to prison. The ridiculousness of this accusation, along with the fact that Jan was arrested while trying to document the number of protesters killed during the operation, convinced many that the government was dishonest.

There is also an ironic dimension to this whole episode. Matiullah Jan is the same journalist who was kidnapped in July 2020 for his reporting, midway through Imran Khan's controversial premiership. At the time, several members of the current PMLN government, then in opposition, used his case to denounce the authoritarianism of the PTI regime. Today, almost no one is willing to come to his defense, even if one assumes they remember what it was like to be the target of state persecution. Even the false accusation of drug trafficking is not unprecedented: in July 2019, a similar false case was registered against Rana Sanaullah Khan, a prominent PMLN politician, who was accused of trafficking 15 kilograms of drug heroin to Lahore.

Amid the dizzying whirlwind of Pakistani politics, where political parties take turns doing the military's bidding and journalists are terrorized into holding them to account, there is a sense that the country has never been so broken . There have been crackdowns in the past, but Islamabad has never seen anything this brutal.

Besides the death of PTI activists, at least four security officials were also killed.

Hassan Ali

Hasan Ali is a journalist who covers U.S. foreign policy and South Asian politics.

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