Violence sweeps across Pakistan as police fire tear gas at demonstrators

Violent protests sparked by the attempted assassination of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan are sweeping across the country today, with police officers firing tear gas at protesters wielding stones and slingshots.

Thousands of protesters have poured out onto the streets of Pakistan today, but the protests quickly turned violent as demonstrators threw rocks at police officers in riot gear.

In chaotic scenes, video from Faizabad on the outskirts of Islamabad shows scores of protesters lining up and throwing stones at the riot police. 

Police officers used batons and fired tear gas to disperse them, with some protesters detained during the clashes.

In the eastern city of Lahore, Khan’s supporters damaged the main gate of the governor’s office. And in the southern port city of Karachi, where Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s allies are in power, hundreds of Khan’s supporters clashed with police. 

The protesters are calling for a transparent investigation into the attempted assassination of the former premier after he was shot in the leg yesterday as he waves to crowds from atop an open top container truck.

Khan had been leading a march on Islamabad to demand snap elections and the resignation of Prime Minister Sharif when a lone gunman opened fire on his convoy, killing one man and wounding 13 others.

The gunman was arrested at the scene, and police released a video of him in custody, allegedly confessing to the shooting and saying he acted alone.

‘I did it because (Khan) was misleading the public,’ said a dishevelled man in the video, shown with his hands tied behind his back in what appears to be a police station.

He added that he was angry with the procession for making a racket during the call to prayer that summons Muslims to the mosque five times a day. 

The attempted assassination attempt on Khan, who is now recovering at the Shaukat Khanum hospital after two bullets struck him in the shin and thigh, sparked protests across Pakistan on Thursday night, with the demonstrations running into today.

Today, hundreds of people poured out on to the streets again as they waved flags and chanted slogans in a protest against the assassination attempt. 

Video shows some of Khan’s supporters burning tyres outside the Punjab Governor’s house in Lahore to protest against the attack. Some demonstrators tried to break into the building and broke CCTV cameras, reports Dawn. 

More are set to fill the streets later today, and Asad Umar, a close Khan aide, said that the protests will continue until the former premier’s demands – including snap elections – are met.

Aside from snap polls, Khan’s party says he is also calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who led a coalition of parties that removed Khan from power through a parliamentary vote in April.

Khan’s supporters began gathering again early on Friday at the spot of the apparent assassination attempt and called on the former prime minister to restart his march on Islamabad.

‘The march must go ahead. It cannot stop. People are very angry, it will become more intense,’ Ansar Bashir, 40, a Khan supporter who was close to the incident, said while holding a flag of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The 70-year-old former international cricket star had been leading a campaign convoy of thousands since last week from Lahore to the capital Islamabad when he was attacked.

Video showed the terrifying moment the politician took cover as he was shot and wounded at the rally.

Footage showed Khan standing at the front of an open top container truck during a protest march to demand snap elections when the gunman fired at the politician with an automatic pistol.

As the sound of bullets filled the air, a shocked Khan, 70, tried to take cover but he was shot in the leg. Khan’s team quickly surrounded him, as people in the crown could be heard screaming.

The violent footage from the scene shows the suspected gunman firing a burst of shots at Khan. A second man is seen trying to wrestle the gun from the would-be assassin, as the gunman tries to escape before being arrested.

Khan’s ex-wife, British socialite and screenwriter Jemima Goldsmith, tweeted a picture of the man who wrestled the shooter, hailing him as a ‘hero’.

Goldsmith, who has two sons Kasim and Sulaiman Isa with Khan, said: ‘The news we dread. Thank God he’s okay. And thank you from his sons to the heroic man in the crowd who tackled the gunman.’

Video later shows Khan wearing a bandage on his leg, waving to supporters after getting shot before he was helped down from an open top container truck and placed carefully into a vehicle.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid, also a member of PTI, told Reuters that two bullets hit Khan in the shin and the thigh.

But earlier reports suggested that Khan may have been hit my splinters of a ricocheting 9mm bullet fired by the attackers.  

Describing the attack, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, who was standing behind Khan, said: ‘There was a guy who was in front of the container who had this automatic pistol. He fired a burst. Everyone who was standing in the very front row got hit.’

He said supporters in the crowd tried to snatch the gun from the attacker. ‘In that scuffle he missed the target. There was so much blood on the container.’ 

‘This was an attempt to kill Khan, to assassinate him,’ his senior aide, Raoof Hasan, said, as protesters poured out on to the streets in some parts of the country and his supporters demanded justice.

Among the wounded was Faisal Javed, a lawmaker from Tehreek-e-Insaf. In a video statement, with blood staining his clothes, Javed said Khan’s protest march to Islamabad would not stop.

Several leaders of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have blamed the government for the assassination attempt, which the authorities have denied.

Khan had demanded police investigate Prime Minister Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and intelligence official Major-General Faisal, alleging they were behind the attack, according to Punjab government spokesperson and PTI leader Mussarat Jamshed Cheema.

Khan and his party have not produced any evidence to support the allegation, while Sharif and Sanaullah have condemned the attack and deny involvement.  

Chaudhry said PTI officials would meet later Friday to discuss the immediate fate of Khan’s campaign march, but vowed it would continue.

‘The real freedom long march will continue and the movement for people’s rights will remain until an announcement on the general elections,’ he tweeted.

For now, Khan’s campaign truck has become a crime scene, cordoned off and guarded by commandos as forensic experts comb the area.

Overnight, thousands of Khan supporters gathered for a peek, many waving party banners.

Pakistan has been grappling with Islamist militancy for decades, and politicians are frequently targeted by assassination attempts.

The attack raised new concerns about growing political instability in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation with a massive population of 225 million people.

Pakistan has a decades-long history of political assassinations, including that of Benazir Bhutto, the first democratically elected female leader of a Muslim country, in 2007. 

The attack happened less than a week after Khan began his march from Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, along with thousands of supporters. 

Each day during his so-called ‘long march’ 70 year-old Khan has mounted a shipping container towed by a lorry, making speeches from the open top to crowds of thousands in cities and towns along the way. 

Since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April, Khan has alleged that his ouster was a conspiracy engineered by his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and the United States – claims that both the new premier and Washington have denied.

Still, Khan – a former cricket star and national sports hero turned Islamist politician – remains a hugely popular figure and his convoy’s journey, expected to be capped with an open-ended rally in Islamabad, could present a significant challenge to the new administration. 

Khan has also been a vocal critic of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment for supporting the current Sharif. 

‘We are not sheep, we are human beings and no one is going to accept neither the imported thieves of this government nor their facilitators,’ Khan lashed out during a speech Saturday. 

Khan has promised his march will remain peaceful and aimed at forcing Sharif to call early elections – but his attempted assassination attempt shows just how divided the nation is. 

The prime minster has repeatedly declined this call for early elections, saying parliamentary elections will take place as scheduled in 2023.

Khan’s latest challenge to the government comes after Pakistan’s elections commission disqualified him from holding public office for five years for allegedly selling state gifts unlawfully and concealing assets as premier.

Khan, who has challenged the disqualification in a pending court case, has said he would sue Chief Election Commissioner Sikandara Raja, who was behind the decision, for calling him a ‘dishonest person.’

Khan has repeatedly told supporters he was prepared to die for the country, and aides have long warned of unspecified threats made on his life.

The attack drew international condemnation including from the United States, which had uneasy relations with Khan when he was in power.

‘Violence has no place in politics, and we call on all parties to refrain from violence, harassment and intimidation,’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The attack comes at a time when impoverished Pakistan is grappling with the aftermath of unprecedented floods that struck this Islamic nation over the summer, killing 1,735 people and displacing 33 million.