Clashes broke out on Tuesday in Islamabad between security forces and thousands of supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who entered the capital early to demand the release of their champion, despite an unprecedented security deployment.
On the expressway at the western entrance to Islamabad, the processions of demonstrators galvanized by Bushra Bibi, the wife of the former cricket star, just released from prison, who called for progress through loudspeakers, entered in the capital.
Not without difficulty: first, they had to move the hundreds of containers installed to block the roads. Then, at regular intervals, lines of police and paramilitaries wait for them and fire tear gas grenades and rubber bullets. The demonstrators responded with more tear gas canisters, throwing stones and sticks.
They are now only about five kilometers from D-Chowk, the usual place of protest on the edge of the district where all the institutions of the country, the fifth most populous in the world, are located.
The authorities report that a police officer was killed and that nine others are in critical condition, without giving further details on the circumstances.
– 20,000 police and paramilitary –
Since Sunday, “more than 20,000 members of the security forces have been deployed in and around Islamabad”, Mohammed Taqi, spokesperson for the capital’s police, announced to AFP.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was clear by visiting D-Chowk several times during the night: “Those who come here will be arrested.”
Washington “urged” the Pakistani authorities to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms”, while calling on the demonstrators to be “peaceful”.
If rumors spoke all night in the local media of negotiations between the government and the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Mr. Khan’s opposition party, few people imagine a calm de-escalation.
Because the two camps have been increasing tension for days around what the PTI presents as “its last act”.
The call to demonstrate had been launched for Sunday. The demonstrators started from the provinces bordering the capital – Punjab in the east and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, stronghold of the PTI, in the west.
– “Containeristan” –
It took them more than 48 hours to arrive at the gates of Islamabad, where Mr. Khan, 72, is incarcerated.
On the other hand, the authorities had pulled out all the stops, going so far as to raise questions.
At the start of the week, Islamabad had triggered “article 144” which prohibits any gathering of more than four people – for two months. Punjab, where more than half of Pakistanis live, followed suit on Saturday, for three days.
“The authorities live in a siege mentality – a state in which they always see themselves in danger and live in permanent fear of being overthrown,” accuses Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani diplomat, in an article.
“Given the scale of the preparations, one wonders if the Islamabad police are preparing for a war,” wondered Wednesday in its editorial Dawn, the leading English-language daily.
Throughout the capital, for days, hundreds of containers have been placed across the roads by cranes.
“Islamabad will once again turn into +Containeristan+. Is this really necessary?,” continues Dawn.
Islamabad’s schools remain closed while the state has indicated that “the mobile internet network and wi-fi will be cut” wherever it sees “a danger”. Since Sunday, no neighborhood has escaped these cuts.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the main NGO defending freedoms in the country, believes that these blockages “penalize ordinary citizens, and in particular daily workers whose income depends on freedom of movement”.
– “Sacrifice our lives for him” –
The pro-Khan, for their part, invariably brushes aside threats.
Kalat Khan, 56, describes himself as “a soldier of Imran Khan”. “We are ready to sacrifice our lives for him and we will go to D-Chowk,” he told AFPTV.
“We will stay there until Imran Khan is released,” adds Raïs Khan, 36.
The head of government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, continues to taunt the authorities: “You can shoot at us, bomb us and block the roads with your containers. If it gets out of hand, you will be responsible.”
Mr. Khan, in power from 2018 to 2022, is currently being prosecuted in around a hundred cases concerning violent demonstrations by his supporters.
In July, a panel of UN experts called for his release, deeming his detention “arbitrary”.
Recently, ten deputies from his party were presented to an anti-terrorism judge for having demonstrated a few days after the adoption of a law governing demonstrations in Islamabad.
