Protests spread from Pakistan’s capital
News, social media squelched to stop cleric’s call to arms
ISLAMABAD — Thousands of Pakistani police officers in riot gear fired tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday as they tried to clear out supporters of a firebrand cleric who have paralyzed the Pakistani capital for weeks with a protest on a main highway.
At least 200 people — including dozens of police officers and paramilitary troops — were injured in the violent confrontation, authorities said. At least 150 protesters were arrested.
The protests spread to other cities in response to the confrontation in Islamabad, where supporters of the cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, have been camped at the Faizabad Interchange, blocking the main road from Rawalpindi.
Late Saturday evening, officials in Islamabad requested the help of the army to “control the law-and-order situation” in the capital, according to the Interior Ministry. The ministry said that military authorities would determine the number of troops to be deployed.
Rizvi, who leads the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan party, is demanding the resignation of Pakistan’s law minister, Zahid Hamid, over a change to electoral laws that amended the wording of an oath sworn by lawmakers.
The move was quickly reversed, but his supporters had denounced the initial change as blasphemy — a highly combustible issue in Pakistan, and one that has repeatedly led to acts of violence.
Saturday, Rizvi rallied his supporters from atop a trailer, shouting through a microphone and accusing authorities of working on behalf of the United States.
“Trump says change Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Are you acting on his orders?” he asked police.
At one point, the electronic media regulating authority took all television news networks off the air in most parts of the country, and Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also were inaccessible, amid concerns that live coverage of the police action was inflaming religious sentiments.
The violence and spreading protests present a grave challenge to the country’s governing party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
At least 8,000 police officers in riot gear and a separate paramilitary police force that had encircled the approximately 2,000 protesters began trying to clear the protesters staging a sit-in on the main interchange in the city early Saturday.
Using water cannons, canisters of tear gas and slings, they managed to wrest back control of a large area. Dozens of tents burned. Thick plumes of smoke and tear gas could be seen from afar as protesters and police officers clashed, each side using stones and batons.
But by midday, the balance seemed to have shifted back to the protesters, who remained in control of the main part of their camp. Dozens of officers were among the injured, officials said.
As the protesters held their ground, Rizvi grew bolder and urged his supporters to bring the whole country to a standstill. Rizvi’s speeches were broadcast on Facebook Live and helped to galvanize his supporters across the country.
By Saturday evening, officials said the operation against the protesters in Islamabad had been suspended, and they denied that a police officer had died during the clashes, after local and foreign reports had published news of the death, attributing it to a police spokesman.
Protesters, meanwhile, stormed the home of Hamid in Pasrur in Sialkot district. Neither the law minister nor his relatives were present at the time of the attack.
Another lawmaker from the governing party, Mian Javid Latif, was attacked by protesters and injured in Sheikhupura district, local news media reported. His condition was stable, they said. Local media outlets reported that protesters in Rawalpindi had damaged the entrance of the house of Nisar Ali Khan, a former interior minister.
Buoyed by the success of their resistance, the protest leaders increased their demands and called for the whole federal Cabinet to resign.