Thousands of protesters massed in Pakistan’s major cities on Sunday after attempts to disperse an Islamist rally in Islamabad ended in deadly violence, with the military hesitant to respond to a government appeal for help.
Groups of chanting demonstrators, many armed with sticks, were arriving to occupy roads between Islamabad and neighbouring Rawalpindi, AFP reporters saw.
Thousands more were on the streets than when police and paramilitaries began a bungled operation to clear them one day earlier.
Karachi, Lahore hit
At least 4,750 were in Pakistan’s biggest city Karachi, according to traffic officials, up from roughly 200 the day before. In Lahore, an estimated 3,400 were occupying main roads. Reports said the protests had also spread to other cities and towns across the country.
The situation has become more charged since authorities moved to clear the roughly 2,000 people who have blocked a major highway in Islamabad since November 6, paralysing the capital for weeks.
They were met with stubborn resistance by protesters who torched vehicles and threw stones. At least seven people were killed and around 230 injured before security forces retreated on Saturday.
An Interior Ministry order said the federal government had authorised the deployment of “sufficient troops” to “control law and order” in the capital until further notice.
The little-known Islamist group at the centre of the protests, Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan (TLY), is demanding the resignation of Pakistan’s Law Minister Zahid Hamid over a hastily-abandoned amendment to Khatm-i-Nabuwwat (finality of prophethood), the oath which election candidates must swear.
Demonstrators have linked the issue to blasphemy — a highly contentious matter in Muslim Pakistan that has fuelled violence many times before.
“I don’t care if my wife and child go hungry, I don’t care if they die of hunger, for me nothing matters more than the honour of my Prophet,” Riaz Shah, a labourer from Lahore who has been at the sit-in since it began, told AFP.
State schools and universities across Punjab province would stay closed on Monday and Tuesday, Lahore’s top education officer said, while universities in Karachi also announced closures.
PM chairs meeting
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired a high-level meeting to review the prevailing security situation.
Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, ISI chief Lt-General Naveed Mukhtiar, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif attended the meeting.
The meeting decided to make another effort for peaceful ending of the protests, official sources said. It was decided that the Army would protect the sensitive buildings and departments in Islamabad.
Also, the government has restored news and TV channels which were taken off-air on Saturday for showing live the police crackdown against the protesters.
The violence is the latest in a series of blows to the beleaguered Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government as general elections approach in 2018.