Imran supporters breach lockdown for his release

SLAMABAD, Nov 26 (AP/AFP): Supporters seeking the release of imprisoned Pakistani former premier Imran Khan on Tuesday broke through a ring of shipping containers locking down the capital Islamabad, while at least six people have died in protest-related violence. Protesters battled security forces and ignored a government threat to respond with gunfire.

The dead included four members of the security services and one civilian who were killed when a vehicle rammed them on a street. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack on Tuesday, saying an "anarchist group" was deliberately targeting law enforcement personnel. There were no claims of responsibility for the ramming. A police officer died in a separate incident.

Shortly after midnight, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi threatened security forces would respond with live fire if protesters fired weapons at them. "If they again fire bullets, the bullet will be responded with the bullet," he said.

Police used tear gas to try and disperse the crowds. Scores of people more have been injured, including journalists who were attacked by Khan supporters. Dozens of Khan supporters beat a videographer covering the protest for The Associated Press and took his camera. He sustained head injuries and was being treated in a hospital.

Pakistani media have mostly stopped filming and photographing the rally, instead focusing on the security measures and the city's deserted streets.

Khan, who has been in jail for over a year and faces more than 150 criminal cases, remains popular. His party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, says the cases are politically motivated.

Sharif's government has come under increasing criticism for deploying heavy-handed measures to quash PTI's protests.

"It speaks of a siege mentality on the part of the government and establishment-a state in which they see themselves in constant danger and fearful all the time of being overwhelmed by opponents," read one opinion piece in the English-language Dawn newspaper published Monday.

"This urges them to take strong-arm measures, not occasionally but incessantly."

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said "blocking access to the capital, with motorway and highway closures across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has effectively penalized ordinary citizens".

Khan was barred from standing in February elections that were marred by allegations of rigging, sidelined by dozens of legal cases that he claims were confected to prevent his comeback.

But his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has defied a government crackdown with regular rallies. Tuesday's is the largest in the capital since Khan was jailed in August 2023.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said "miscreants" involved in the march had killed four members of the paramilitary Rangers force on a city highway leading towards the government sector.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the men had been "run over by a vehicle". "These disruptive elements do not seek revolution but bloodshed," he said in a statement. "This is not a peaceful protest, it is extremism."

The government said Monday that one police officer had also been killed and nine more were critically wounded by demonstrators who set out towards Islamabad on Sunday.

The capital has been locked down since late Saturday, with mobile internet sporadically cut and more than 20,000 police flooding the streets, many armed with riot shields and batons.

The government has accused protesters of attempting to derail a state visit by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who arrived for a three-day visit on Monday. Last week, the Islamabad city administration announced a two-month ban on public gatherings.

But PTI convoys travelled from their power base in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the most populous province of Punjab, hauling aside roadblocks of stacked shipping containers.

"We are deeply frustrated with the government, they do not know how to function," 56-year-old protester Kalat Khan told AFP on Monday. "The treatment we are receiving is unjust and cruel."