Islamabad: After the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) convoys arrived in Islamabad for the party’s planned protest, defying a court order and government warnings, the party claimed its workers were being arrested and dispersed using teargas, Dawn reported. PTI shared a video on X condemning the extreme shelling by the Pakistani government against its own citizens at Islamabad Express.
“These are visuals of the extreme shelling by the fascist regime against own citizens at Islamabad Express! It’s absolutely disgusting and shameful how inhumanly this government is treating Pakistanis!,” the post said. The Sunday protest, called by Imran Khan on November 13, aims to denounce the “stolen mandate,” unjust arrests, and the 26th amendment, which Khan claims has strengthened a “dictatorial regime.”
The Islamabad High Court had ruled the protest ‘unlawful’, directing the government to maintain law and order without disrupting public life, especially with the Belarusian president’s scheduled visit over the weekend with a high-profile delegation. However, PTI supporters began arriving in Islamabad, prompting the party to claim that police were detaining its workers and using teargas to disperse them, as per Dawn.
Further, the Dawn stated that mobile internet services were down across the city, while major roads, including motorways, were blocked with containers. Pictures shared by the Dawn showed mostly deserted roads and people on motorbikes making their way from a narrow corner of a road blocked by trucks.
Following the chaotic situation in Pakistan, the office of the district magistrate in Islamabad ordered the closure of all public and private educational institutions in the capital territory on Monday. In another post, the PTI shared a video without specifying the location, saying that “The fascist regime has started, as expected, tear gas shelling against peaceful Pakistanis.”
Imran’s party, in a separate post on X, claimed that the convoy of National Assembly opposition leader Omar Ayub was targeted near Taxila and shells were fired at it.
While criticising the PTI protest, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said, “One option is that we let them come and […] paralyse Islamabad. The other option is to protect Islamabad, adding that “the area where they (the PTI) have called the protest is a protected area of Islamabad, monitored by the IG and DIG,” referring to the Red Zone.
“Any protesters who enter that area will be arrested,” he warned. Referring to the arrival of a Belarusian delegation in the capital, Naqvi said PTI supporters were coming on to the route through which the delegation was supposed to pass. He criticised the PTI for organising protests instead of attending the funerals being held in Kurram, referring to violent clashes there in the past few days. “If you wish to protest, that is your right, but you know exactly who is coming and you have been blocking off roads and causing trouble.”
The violence was the latest to rock Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, just days after a deadly attack on a convoy in the same area killed dozens of people.
On Friday, protests and rallies took place throughout the Sindh province, echoing those in other major cities across Pakistan, to condemn the assault on a convoy of passenger vehicles in Lower Kurram, which led to the deaths of at least 42 individuals, Dawn reported.
