Four Pakistani soldiers killed as Imran’s supporters flood capital

At least five police and paramilitary personnel have been killed and dozens of people injured in Pakistan as thousands of supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan forced their way through security barriers and entered the capital Islamabad on Tuesday morning.

Authorities have enforced a security lockdown in the capital for the last three days after Khan called for supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to march on parliament for a sit-in demonstration to demand his release.

By Tuesday morning, over 100,000 of Khan’s supporters armed with sticks and slingshots had broken through the barriers and entered Islamabad, where they were marching toward the “red zone”, an area in the centre of the capital where the parliament and other diplomatic buildings are located. The area resembled a fortress of barriers, shipping containers and police personnel in riot gear.

The protesters were led by Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who was recently released from prison, and Khan’s key aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, who is the chief minister of PTI stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Tens of thousands more were expected to join from neighbouring Punjab and Rawalpindi.

Later, one police officer was shot and killed in the clashes while at least 119 others were injured, and 22 police vehicles were torched in clashes just outside Islamabad and elsewhere in the Punjab province, provincial police chief Usman Anwar said. Two officers were in critical condition, he said.

Another four Rangers paramilitary officers were killed on the outskirts of Islamabad, reportedly when they were run over by a car driven by PTI protesters.

Scores of PTI supporters were also injured and Khan’s party accused the government of using excessive violence. “They are even firing live bullets,” one of Khan’s aides, Shaukat Yousafzai, told Geo News.

Provincial information minister Uzma Bukhari said about 80 of Khan’s supporters had been arrested but PTI claimed that about 5,000 had been picked up by police as they marched to Islamabad from across the country.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said "miscreants" involved in the march had killed four members of the paramilitary Rangers force on a city highway leading towards the government sector.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the men had been "run over by a vehicle".

"These disruptive elements do not seek revolution but bloodshed," he said in a statement. "This is not a peaceful protest, it is extremism."

Khan was barred from standing in February elections that were marred by allegations of rigging, sidelined by dozens of legal cases that he claims were confected to prevent his comeback.

But his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has defied a government crackdown with regular rallies. Tuesday's rally is the largest in the capital since Khan was jailed in August 2023.

PTI’s main demand for the protest is for Khan to be released, alleging that the former prime minister is being held as a political prisoner and that the hundreds of charges against him are trumped up by his political opponents.

Voted out of power by parliament in 2022 after he fell out with Pakistan’s powerful military, Khan faces charges ranging from corruption to instigation of violence, all of which he and his party deny.

Khan, the 72-year-old charismatic former cricket star served as premier from 2018 to 2022 and is the lodestar of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

'Frustrated with government'

The capital has been locked down since late Saturday, with mobile internet sporadically cut and more than 20,000 police flooding the streets, many armed with riot shields and batons.

The government has accused protesters of attempting to derail a state visit by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who arrived for a three-day visit on Monday.

Last week, the Islamabad city administration announced a two-month ban on public gatherings.

But PTI convoys travelled from their power base in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the most populous province of Punjab, hauling aside roadblocks of stacked shipping containers.

"We are deeply frustrated with the government, they do not know how to function," 56-year-old protester Kalat Khan told AFP on Monday. "The treatment we are receiving is unjust and cruel."

The government cited "security concerns" for the mobile internet outages, while Islamabad's schools and universities were also ordered shut on Monday and Tuesday.

"Those who will come here will be arrested," Interior Minister Naqvi told reporters late Monday at D-Chowk, the public square outside Islamabad's government buildings that PTI aims to occupy.

'Siege mentality'

Sharif's government has come under increasing criticism for deploying heavy-handed measures to quash PTI's protests.

"It speaks of a siege mentality on the part of the government and establishment -- a state in which they see themselves in constant danger and fearful all the time of being overwhelmed by opponents," read one opinion piece in the English-language Dawn newspaper published Monday.

"This urges them to take strong-arm measures, not occasionally but incessantly."

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said "blocking access to the capital, with motorway and highway closures across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has effectively penalized ordinary citizens".

The US State Department appealed for protesters to refrain from violence, while also urging authorities to "respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to ensure respect for Pakistan's laws and constitution as they work to maintain law and order".

Khan was ousted by a no-confidence vote after falling out with the kingmaking military establishment, which analysts say engineers the rise and fall of Pakistan's politicians.

But as opposition leader, he led an unprecedented campaign of defiance, with PTI street protests boiling over into unrest that the government cited as the reason for its crackdown.

PTI won more seats than any other party in this year's election but a coalition of parties considered more pliable to military influence shut them out of power.