6 killed as police break up 3-week sit-in
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan called in its army to restore order on Saturday night, hours after a violent clash between police and crowds protesting an omitted reference to the Prophet Muhammad in a parliamentary bill left six people dead and many dozens wounded, state TV reported.
The Interior Ministry did not specify when the troops would be deployed, and no soldiers were visible on the streets late Saturday.
Supporters of an Islamist group have been camped out at a key intersection outside the capital for three weeks, and the protest has triggered similar demonstrations across the country.
Hundreds of police officers in riot gear moved in to clear the intersection that links Islamabad with the garrison city of Rawalpindi after a deadline expired at midnight Friday, doctors at local hospitals said.
Enraged protesters torched three police vans, two civilian vehicles and three two motorcycles, and they also damaged two television-station vehicles and ransacked a new metro bus terminal near the venue.
The violence sent scores of police and protesters to hospitals with injuries caused by stoning and respiratory problems from tear gas. Hospital officials said nearly 200 people were hurt, most of them police officers.
Dr. Masood Safdar of Benazir Bhutto Hospital said five civilians were shot and killed. Dr. Tariq Niazi of the Holy Family Hospital confirmed the death of a young man who was shot in head.
News of the police intervention spread quickly, prompting sympathizers in cities around the country to take to the streets in a show of solidarity with the Islamabad protesters. The situation prompted the country’s regulatory body for electronic media to take TV broadcasts off the air. Key social-media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were also blocked. Government officials were not immediately available for comment.
The supporters of the Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah party demand the resignation of a law minister over an omitted reference to the prophet in a parliamentary bill. The minister, Zahid Hamid, has apologized for the omission — a phrase saying that Muhammad is the last prophet in Islam. Hamid said it was a clerical error that was later corrected.
Saturday’s action came after a court ordered an end to the protest because it was disrupting daily life.