Authorities fired tear gas on Tuesday in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad to scatter protesters demanding the release of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, in demonstrations they said killed four paramilitary troops, SİA reports citing Reuters.
The interior ministry warned that a curfew could be imposed with troops called in to block the marchers, whom the prime minister blamed for the deaths, saying the troops were run over by vehicles in a convoy of protesters.
"It is not a peaceful protest. It is extremism," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement, condemning the bloodshed as being aimed at achieving "evil political designs". The interior ministry said four troops were killed, but did not say who was responsible.
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the government's accusations. Thousands of the jailed leader's supporters broke through security barriers on roads blocked with shipping containers as they responded to his call for a sit-in protest near parliament, where hundreds gathered at a nearby roundabout.
Calling for the government's resignation among other demands, the protesters ransacked vehicles and set a police kiosk on fire. Gunshots rang out in the area, a Reuters witness said, but it was unclear who was responsible. The protesters also attacked and wounded journalists at two separate locations, people from two media houses told Reuters.
The government met Khan's aides to try to calm the protests, but the attempt did not succeed, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said. On Monday, a police officer was killed and dozens wounded in clashes as the protest approached Islamabad. Khan had told marchers to stay put at the roundabout, a popular protest site, until their demands were met.
His party has called for a rollback of constitutional amendments it says the government made to handcuff the judiciary, which has questioned the legitimacy of several cases against the 72-year-old. Khan's wife, Bushra Bibi, and a key aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, who is the chief minister of the PTI stronghold Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, led the march that wound its way into the capital early on Tuesday.
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