The Pakistan Army has issued a “shoot-on-sight” order in response to protesters supporting Imran Khan.
The government of Pakistan has requested military assistance in the country’s capital, Islamabad, where protesters demanding the release of former prime minister Imran Khan stepped up their actions. Thousands of protesters stormed the streets of the capital and clashed violently with the police, leaving at least four officers and a civilian dead.
As per Bloomberg, after intervention, the Pakistan Army issued “shoot at sight” orders under Section 245, a law that provisionally allows the military to take steps to defend Pakistan against external aggression. The section provides for suspension of judicial review and also of any further legal proceedings.
According to local media sources, military order had told the soldiers not to spare anyone.
Police warnings notwithstanding, protesters demanded that Imran Khan be released, who has now become the spearhead of protests. Now the city of Islamabad is alive with a sea of tens of thousands of people who are armed with sticks, stones, and catapults.
Imran Khan, an erstwhile prime minister of Pakistan, who served the country from 2018 to 2022, was not spared by the Pakistani establishment from imprisonment and exile. Despite having a huge support base, Khan has been denied the right to contest future elections. He faces numerous charges against him-ranging from corruption and vandalism to sedition and treason. According to Khan, such charges will be used to scuttle his political comeback.
In elections earlier this year, clouded with accusations of rigging, the party of Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, won the most seats in parliament, although Khan himself was disqualified from the competition. A coalition of parties more willing to yield to pressure from the military formed a government. The two central demands of current protests outside Islamabad are: free Imran Khan and the reversal of what protesters believe are rigged election results.
Despite being termed as a great crackdown by the government on PTI, it has continued to hold rallies across the country, ignoring the efforts to kiss off Khan’s political career. The latest Islamabad protest is the biggest expression of support for Khan since his detention last August, although he has been arrested several times before.
Violent clashes followed police attempts to clear crowds, and four officers and a civilian are confirmed dead and others critically injured.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has leveled the charge of “bloodthirsty” against “disruptive elements” who, instead of looking for an amicable revolution, wanted to create mayhem, and the protesters they killed were “run over by a vehicle,” not inside clashes.
Islamabad was put under heavy security since Saturday as more than 20,000 police and thousands of troops equipped with riot gear along with tear gas and firearms have been deployed in the area. Major roads that lead to the governmental district have been blocked off, and the mobile phone services have been intermittently cut off, along with drones patrolling over the protestators. The government also banned all public gathering forthwith for two months, not declaring a state of emergency.
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