Pakistan’s army has been ordered by the government to “shoot on sight” after violent clashes between the police and demonstrators killed four soldiers and at least one protester, according to reports.
The violence erupted when protesters demanding the release of Pakistan’s jailed former premier Imran Khan entered the capital Islamabad late Monday, defying efforts by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government to stifle the nationwide demonstrations.
Television networks reported the military was called after four paratroopers had been killed and that the army, under Article 245, had been deployed and authorised to shoot on sight. The government ministers and leaders of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party blamed each other for starting the violence.
“We have been showing restraint,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters late on Monday in Islamabad. “There is nothing that stops us from firing back. It will take the paramilitary force rangers five minutes to fire shots and then everybody will be dispersed.”
Zulfi Bukhari, a spokesman for Khan’s political movement, said one of the marchers was killed and 20 others were wounded as the authorities confronted the protesters.
The authorities have blamed the turmoil on Khan’s supporters led by his wife Bushra Bibi, pointing out that a police officer had been killed and more than 119 hurt, while the protesters set police vehicles on fire. The interior minister has signalled that he intended to hold Khan directly accountable, saying “those who gave the call for the protest and seconded it are responsible for policemen casualties.”
Naqvi also said authorities would arrest protesters near the capital’s so-called Red Zone, where top government offices and Parliament are located, as well as the president and prime minister’s residences and embassies.
The protesters continue to march toward the Red Zone and are just a few kilometres away from where they plan to stage a sit-in, local television channels reported on Tuesday. They are resisting the police tear gas on Islamabad’s crucial Srinagar Highway, which connects the city to the international airport and to the north of the country, they said.
Khan, a former cricket star, has been in jail for more than a year. He faces more than 150 cases, from corruption to inciting violence and misuse of power, which relate to his time when he was the premier and after he was removed from power in a vote of confidence by parliament in April 2022.
The marches began Sunday at Khan’s encouragement and despite a court order last week barring Khan’s party from staging a sit-in in Islamabad on the eve of an official visit by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday. Khan remains in custody despite courts granting him bail or suspending sentences in some of the cases against him.
The largest convoy, led by the former prime minister’s allies from the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, had removed roadblocks along the highway to Islamabad after authorities tried to disperse them with tear gas, according to Pakistani government officials.
Authorities earlier said hundreds of Khan’s followers in multiple cities had been arrested in the protests and skirmishes. Those injuries included gunshot wounds, according to Interior Minister Naqvi.