Normalcy returns to Islamabad as PTI ends protest after crackdown

Life in Islamabad began to return to normal on Wednesday after a grand operation to disperse Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) protesters was completed, with business activities resuming and educational activities expected to restart on Thursday.

Earlier, the party of Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan suspended street protests seeking his release, it said on Wednesday, following media reports of hundreds of arrests by security forces in a sweeping midnight raid in the capital.

The sit-in had been called off, Zulfikar Bukhari, a spokesman for Imran’s party, the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), confirmed, citing what he called “the massacre.” He was referring to Tuesday night’s raid in Islamabad after the protests resulted in the deaths of at least six people, among them four paramilitary soldiers and two protesters.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif told a televised cabinet meeting that the struggling economy could ill afford a paralysing protest that had cost it Rs190 billion ($680 million) a day.

More than 10,000 protesters surged into the city, defying a lockdown and a ban on public gatherings to skirmish with 20,000 security forces enlisted to turn them back. Authorities arrested nearly 1,000 supporters of Imran who stormed the capital this week to demand his release, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi said. Razvi announced that as many as 954 protesters (belonging to PTI) have been arrested over the past three days with 610 of them having been detained on Wednesday alone.

Addressing a press conference along with the chief commissioner Islamabad, the IGP reported the confiscation of over 200 vehicles and 39 various types of weapons, including Kalashnikovs, 12-bore guns, and other firearms during PTI protest. “We have all the video evidence showing armed protesters advancing with masks on their faces,” he said. The IGP disclosed that 52 out of 71 injured individuals were law enforcement personnel. “Protesters used large fans to blow tear gas fumes back towards our forces,” he explained.

Islamabad Chief Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa said nobody will be allowed to take law in their hands and challenge the writ of state. He said all the law enforcement agencies played their role to handle the situation in the federal capital.

Imran Khan’s aides alleged, without immediately providing evidence, that hundreds had suffered gunshot wounds during chaotic scenes overnight in the heart of Islamabad as police dispersed protesters led by Imran’s wife who had broken through security barricades. They also said thousands had been arrested.

Islamabad’s police chief, Ali Rizvi, denied that live ammunition had been used during the operation, which he said police had conducted alongside paramilitary forces.

Ali Amin Gandapur, a top Khan aide and chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province who was a part of the protests and fled when the operation began, accused the authorities of using excessive force against protesters who he said were peaceful. He said “hundreds” had sustained bullet wounds.

Pakistan’s information minister and an Islamabad police spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the allegation.

PTI spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari PTI said earlier that the protest seeking Khan’s release had been called off, citing what he called “the massacre.” But Gandapur said the protest would continue until Khan himself called it off. At least six people — four paramilitary soldiers and two protesters — had been killed in the protests before the overnight clashes, according to PTI.

But the office of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi denied this. “As of now, no death has been reported, and the claims circulating regarding any such incidents are baseless and unverified,” it said in a statement. Visiting protest sites on Wednesday, Naqvi said law enforcement agencies had successfully cleared protesters from the site of the sit-in and other areas of the capital.

He called on PTI to provide any evidence of the firing of live ammunition by security forces, and said it had not provided any details of deaths of its supporters.

Geo News and broadcaster ARY both said security forces had raided the site in central Islamabad in complete darkness, and that a barrage of tear gas had been fired. The protesters were almost completely dispersed, they added.