Pakistan’s army and police have been accused of firing on civilians, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries to hundreds of protesters who had stormed Islamabad on Tuesday to demand the release of the former prime minister Imran Khan from prison.
As tens of thousands of Khan’s supporters stormed the capital on Tuesday in defiance of government orders, the army and paramilitary forces were deployed in huge numbers and issued with shoot-to-kill orders to try to stop the crowds reaching the heart of Islamabad’s sensitive Red Zone, which houses the parliament, supreme court and prime minister’s residence.
The centre of the city, known as D-Chowk, was the scene of violent clashes as protesters who had travelled from across the country came up against security forces. Protesters set shipping containers ablaze while riot police and army officers fired teargas and rubber bullets and were also accused of using live ammunition.
By late at night, a power blackout had been imposed on the area, shutting down all the lights, and a major crackdown began. Army and paramilitary officers eventually succeeded in pushing Khan’s supporters out of the capital. Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, who recently emerged as a political figurehead of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) and had led the protest convoy into Islamabad, also fled the scene.
On Wednesday, Islamabad remained clear of all protesters and PTI said it was suspending the protest “in view of the government’s brutality and the government’s plan to turn the capital into a slaughterhouse”.
PTI leaders said dozens of those involved in the protests had been killed in live firing by police and the army, and released names of eight they said had been killed. The Guardian could not verify PTI’s figures of the dead.
The minister for information and broadcasting, Attaullah Tarar, said there had been no firing on PTI protesters and no fatalities. The interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, said in a statement that officers had “bravely repulsed the protesters”.
However, official sources told the Guardian there had been 17 civilian fatalities from army and paramilitary gunfire and hundreds more had been injured.
Doctors at hospitals in Islamabad said they had received multiple patients with gunshot wounds. The Guardian witnessed at least five patients with bullet wounds in one hospital, which was surrounded by police.
A doctor who was on duty in the emergency ward on Tuesday night said he had treated more than 40 injured patients, several of whom had been shot. “At least seven have died and four are in critical condition in the hospital,” he said. “Eight more have been admitted to the hospital with bullet wounds.”
The doctor, who requested anonymity for his safety, said there had been an attempt to cover up any fatalities. “All records of dead and injured have been confiscated by authorities. We are not allowed to talk. Senior government officials are visiting the hospital to hide the records,” he said.
Among those in the hospital was Bismillah Kaleem*, who had travelled in the protest convoy with Khan’s wife from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Kaleem said he had been on a bus entering the Red Zone when bullets rained down on their vehicle.
“The bullet hit me in the chest,” said Kaleem, who struggled for breath. “I don’t know how many people have been killed. At least more than 100 have been injured.” The relatives of others who had been hit with bullets said they were too scared to speak.
According to Ali Amin Gandapur, the PTI chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, almost 1,000 people who had taken part in the protest had been arrested by Wednesday evening.
Khan has been in jail for more than a year facing more than 100 charges that he says are trumped up by his political opponents. His government was toppled in 2022 after he fell out with the military, but he remains Pakistan’s most popular leader and his support has continued to swell as he remains behind bars.
He had issued a “final call” for his supporters to gather in Islamabad at the weekend to demand his release. He has claimed that the election that took place in February, which brought the coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif to power, was widely rigged against PTI, and the party has held several protests calling for free and fair polls.
The violence of Tuesday’s protest drew criticism from human rights groups. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called on PTI and the Sharif government to enter into a dialogue. “It is high time they agree on a peaceful way forward instead of inciting their supporters and bringing the country to a standstill,” a statement said.
*Name changed for security reasons.