Four paramilitaries were killed on Tuesday in Pakistan in clashes between security forces deployed en masse in Islamabad and thousands of supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan who had come to the capital to demand his release.
Galvanized by Bushra Bibi, the wife just released from prison of the 72-year-old former cricket star, incarcerated and prosecuted for a hundred cases, they entered Islamabad and progressed towards D-Chowk: it’s on this place that they intend to put pressure on the government which sits in the adjacent district and is currently receiving Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko there with great fanfare.
Several ministers announced the death of the four paramilitaries, run over according to them by demonstrators in a vehicle. On Monday evening, police reported the death of one of their officers, killed outside Islamabad, when demonstrators were marching towards the capital.
Waqas Akram, MP for Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Mr. Khan’s party, explained to AFP that the procession was demanding “the release of all PTI activists and leaders”, assuring that it was ” also the priority of Imran Khan” who meets his lieutenants in the visiting room every week. “We will march until we obtain these requirements.”
To reach Islamabad, the demonstrators had to move hundreds of containers installed to block the roads.
– “Disturbed” visit –
Then, at regular intervals, they suffered volleys of tear gas grenades and rubber bullets from the lines of police and paramilitaries.
The demonstrators responded with more tear gas canisters, throwing stones and sticks.
“The state’s response is completely disproportionate,” denounced MP Akram. “We have the right to demonstrate,” he insisted, even though he himself was presented in September to an anti-terrorism judge for having contravened a recent law restricting the right to assembly in the capital.
The call to demonstrate had been launched for Sunday. Then, the PTI procession set off from the provinces bordering the capital of the fifth most populous country in the world.
Speaking from the ultra-secure D-Chowk district, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar attacked the PTI: “why do they always demonstrate during international visits?” he said.
“The Belarusian president signed agreements and said good things about Pakistan and these people are attacking us,” he said. “No one will be allowed to disrupt this visit.”
Since Sunday, “more than 20,000 members of the security forces have been deployed”, according to the Islamabad police, while Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi repeats that “those who go to D-Chowk will be arrested”.
Washington “urged” the authorities to “respect human rights”, while calling on the demonstrators to be “peaceful”.
– “Containeristan” –
For days, the authorities have 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.
As for Dawn, the reference daily in English, it “wonders if the Islamabad police are preparing for a war”: “transforming Islamabad into +Containeristan+, is it really necessary?”.
The capital’s schools remain closed and the State insists 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, denounces blockages which “penalize ordinary citizens, in particular daily workers whose income depends on freedom of movement”.
– ‘Everything Imran Khan will tell us’ –
The pro-Khan, for their part, invariably brushes aside threats. Thus, Mazhar Karim assures him: “we will do whatever Imran Khan tells us”.
“He asked us to come here, here we are,” he told AFPTV in the procession. “If he tells us to sacrifice our lives, we will.”
“We will stay there until Imran Khan is released,” adds Raïs Khan, 36.
The head of government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, for his part, 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”.
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