Police in pitched battle with radicals
islamabad — A policeman was killed and over 100 people were injured as the security forces on Saturday moved to disperse a religious sit-in that has virtually paralysed the country’s capital for almost three weeks.
The police officer suffered a deadly blow to the head as protesters pelted stones at security forces during the crackdown on the IJ Principal Road near the Faizabad Interchange.
According to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, 139 injured were brought to the hospital.
Thousands of security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets as the demonstrators blocked roads and burned police vehicles around the site of the sit-in.
An Islamabad police spokesman confirmed that a policeman was killed in the fighting after he was struck in the head by a rock, and an AFP journalist saw what appeared to be the body of at least one demonstrator lying on the road in the capital.
Taking note of a worsening situation, Military Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa telephoned Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to suggest a peaceful handling of the protest, according to a tweet by military spokesman Maj. Gen Asif Ghafoor.
Senior police officer Ismatullah Junejo said police were swiftly clearing the venue as some 300 protesters ignored the final warning to disperse.
He said none of the police carried firearms to avoid loss of life, instead using only tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protesters.
But witnesses said at one point when a police van came under attack and was set on fire two police officers aimed assault rifles at protesters.
Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal told state television that the government had shown much patience in dealing with the protesters.
“The administration is taking action under court order but still we are open for talks with them,” he said. Ahsan said some elements among the protesters wanted to create chaos and destabilisation in the country.
The sit-in by the little-known hardline group called Tehreek-iLabaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan (TLYRAP) has blocked the main road into the capital used by thousands of commuters since November 6, causing hours-long traffic snarls and enraging commuters.
The protesters, who before Saturday numbered some 2,000 people, are demanding that Pakistan’s law minister Zahid Hamid resign over a hastily-abandoned amendment to the oath that election candidates must swear.
Demonstrators have linked it to blasphemy and claim the oath was softened to enable the participation of Ahmadis.
Smoke and tear gas filled the air in the ongoing, hours-long bid by some 8,500 police as well as paramilitary Rangers and Frontier Corps forces to clear the demonstrators, which began soon after dawn.
Reporters at the site said dozens more demonstrators were arriving. Fresh protests were also springing up in other cities. Police in Karachi The administration is taking action under court order but still we are open for talks with them said some 200 protesters were blockading a major road in the southern port.
Smaller demonstrations were also springing up in Lahore and other cities, according to local media. Authorities have hesitated to act against the sit-in, citing fears of violence as the demonstrators have
Ahsan Iqbal, Interior Minister
vowed to die for their cause. But their weeks of inaction have sparked the wrath of residents as well as Pakistan’s judiciary, with the Supreme Court issuing a blistering statement earlier in the week and the Islamabad High Court threatening to hold officials in contempt. The sit-in had previ- ously cost the life of an eight-yearold child whose ambulance could not reach a hospital in time due to the blocked roads.
Analysts and critics have accused the government of bungling its response to the protest, and allowing a minor issue to grow into a headline-grabbing and potentially dangerous situation. It set an alarming precedent, that “anytime anyone is upset with the government, the capital may be choked and the government will bend its knees,” warned Zeeshan Salahuddin of the Centre for Research and Security Studies, a think tank in Islamabad.— IANS, AFP