Pakistan: One killed, dozens injured as Imran Khan supporters clash with security forces | Pakistan

At least one police officer was killed and dozens of people injured in Pakistan as supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan clashed with security forces outside the capital Islamabad on Monday, officials and Khan’s party said.

Authorities have enforced a security cordon for the past two days after Khan called for a march on parliament for a sit-in demonstration to demand his release, while highways into the city have been blocked.

One police officer was shot dead, at least 119 others were injured and 22 police vehicles were set on fire in clashes just outside Islamabad and elsewhere in Punjab province, provincial police chief Usman Anwar said. Two officers were in critical condition, he said.

Khan’s party said dozens of its workers were also injured.

The jailed leader’s third wife, Bushra Bibi, and a key aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, who is the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, led a march that arrived almost inside Islamabad on Monday evening, said the jailed leader’s third wife, Bushra Bibi.

The government has used shipping containers to block major roads and streets in Islamabad with patrols of riot police and paramilitary personnel.

Officials and witnesses said all public transport between cities and terminals had also been shut down in the eastern province to keep the protesters away.

Provincial Information Minister Uzma Bukhari said around 80 of Khan’s supporters had been arrested.

Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told local Geo News TV that the government was seeking talks with leaders of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to calm the situation. “It was a sincere attempt, I must say, but it didn’t produce any results,” he said.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said security forces showed “extreme restraint” in confronting the protesters, some of whom he said had fired live rounds, while police only used rubber bullets and fired tear gas canisters.

“It’s easy to respond to a bullet with a bullet,” he said.

He said the government had offered Khan’s party permission to hold a sit-in protest in an open field on the outskirts of Islamabad, adding that party leaders took that offer up to Khan in his jail cell, but “we have yet to hear back about that.”

Naqvi added that the protesters would not be allowed outside parliament and warned that the government would be forced to take “extreme” action if they did not budge, which could include imposing a curfew or calling in army troops.

“We will not let them cross our red lines,” he said

But Khan’s party accused the government of using excessive violence to block the protesters and said hundreds of workers and leaders had been arrested.

“They are even firing live bullets,” one of Khan’s aides, Shaukat Yousafzai, told Geo News.

Reuters TV and local television footage showed police firing tear gas canisters at Khan’s supporters, who pelted them with stones and bricks.

The videos showed vehicles and trees burning along the main march just outside Islamabad, as protesters in some places pushed shipping containers to get on the road.

Gatherings in Islamabad have been banned, while all schools in the capital and the neighboring city of Rawalpindi were to remain closed on Monday and Tuesday, authorities said.

The protest march, which Khan has described as the “final call”, is one of many his party had held to seek his release since he was jailed last August. The party’s most recent protest in Islamabad, in early October, turned violent.

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