Pakistan cracks down on Islamabad sitin, cop dies
TV channels told to suspend live broadcast, social media blocked
ISLAMABAD : One policeman died and over 100 people were injured as Pakistan cracked down on radical Islamist protestors in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and imposed a gag order on TV channels covering the spiralling violence.
The government on Saturday asked all news channels to suspend live broadcast as protests against a police operation earlier in the day in Islamabad spread to other cities, with fears that the situation could turn into a major law and order problem. Social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were also blocked in various parts of the country.
The army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa talked to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and urged for peaceful solution to the problem.
Islamabad and Karachi were most affected by the violence, and till Saturday evening it was unclear who had the upper hand, with the government claiming its operation had been successful while supporters of the Tehreeke-Labbaik insisting they continued to protest and cause disruption in different parts of the country.
Karachi’s main thoroughfare, the Sharare Faisal, had been blocked at different spots.
It is feared that protests will continue on Sunday as well. Tehreek-e-Labaik spokesperson Ejaz Ashrafi told the media by telephone that supporters of the movement were in their thousands. “We will not leave. We will fight until the end,” he said.
More than 8,500 police and paramilitary personnel took part in the Islamabad operation earlier in the day to dislodge the protestors who had blocked the Faizabad interchange, one of the Pakistani capital’s busiest traffic intersections, for almost 20 days.
Officials said the operation had achieved 90% success, adding that some of the protestors took to the streets and caused mayhem in different parts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. TV channels reported that the police operation was suspended by evening, but there was no official confirmation of this. The protesters want resignation of law minister Zahid Hamid for altering the declaration of lawmakers with regard to Finality of the Prophethood – a change which the government has already reversed.