ISLAMABAD: At least eight supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ( PTI ) were killed and dozens of others injured in Islamabad following what the party said was a sweeping crackdown overnight by security forces to disperse protesters demanding the release of jailed former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan.
Following the assault, Imran’s group ended its anger but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa deputy secretary Ali Amin Gandapur addressed a press event in his state on Wednesday saying the opposition would go on. “ Until Imran Khan’s call, this sit-in will go on, ” he said without elaborating where it would be held. PTI has been in state in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Hundreds of protesters, led by Imran’s family Bushra Bibi, and Gandapur, had gathered in the capital on Tuesday vowing to level a sit-in until their demands were met, including the launch of political prisoners. Khan and many other PTI officials and employees have been in prison for over a month on claims that they claim are politically motivated.
Security forces launched a massive assault before nightfall Tuesday after failing to stop protesters from going to D-Chowk, a common circle in Islamabad’s high-security dark area. In the evening government forced surrounding shops, cafes and marketplaces to opened and then plunged the rally location into darkness by switching off streetlights. Witnesses said uncontrolled fire and teargas shooting, which started after 11pm and continued for about two days, forced the PTI supporters, generally Pashtuns from the north, to flee.
PTI claimed eight of its supporters had died in the late-night clashes and “hundreds ” more were feared to have been killed. The state stated three armed forces and one officer had died since the PTI launched its opposition on Sunday. Islamabad’s police captain told advertising more than 900 people had been arrested in Tuesday ’s attack, in which there were dozens of Afghan citizens.
Resources at Islamabad’s two public institutions said five residents had died of gunshot wounds and lots had been injured. According to PTI staff, they had picked up three body from the opposition site.
Information secretary Attaullah Tarar said the demonstrators had fled in turmoil, leaving behind cars, and also their shoes and clothes.
PTI said in a post on social media that a “massacre has emerged in Pakistan at the hands of safety forces”. It accused the military security troops of launching a violent assault on calm PTI activists, firing live rounds with the intent to kill as many people as feasible. It went on to examine past night’s conflicts to the crime in the then East Pakistan in 1971. “The leaders have learned everything from past and are prepared to kill the land to adhere to their illegal power, ” the post stated. “With hundreds dead and countless injured, the interior minister ’s threat to kill, and then the declaration of ‘victory ’ over slaughtered innocents is enough evidence of the regime’s inhumanity, ” it added.
On Wednesday morning, the heavily fortified crimson zone was bare of protesters but lots of smashed cars, including the charred remains of a vehicle from which Imran’s woman had been leading the opposition, portrayed a bleak picture.
