Thousands more protesters yesterday massed in Pakistan’s major cities after attempts to disperse a Muslim rally in Islamabad ended in deadly violence, with the Pakistani military hesitant to respond to a government appeal for help.
Groups of chanting demonstrators, many armed with sticks, were arriving to occupy roads between Islamabad and neighboring Rawalpindi, reporters saw.
Thousands more were on the streets than when police and paramilitaries began a bungled operation to clear them one day earlier.
Photo: AP
At least 4,750 were in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, according to traffic officials, up from about 200 the day before.
In the cultural capital, Lahore, an estimated 3,400 were occupying main roads.
Reports said the protests had also spread to other cities and towns across the country.
The numbers are still relatively small by Pakistani standards, but have grown swiftly.
The situation has become more charged since authorities moved to clear the about 2,000 people who have blocked a major highway in Islamabad since Nov. 6, paralyzing the capital for weeks.
They were met with stubborn resistance by protesters who torched vehicles and threw stones. At least seven people were killed and about 230 injured before security forces retreated on Saturday.
An order by the Pakistani Ministry of the Interior said the federal government had authorized the deployment of “sufficient troops” to “control law and order” in the capital until further notice.
However, more than 18 hours after the order was released there was no official military response and no sign of armored vehicles or soldiers on the streets.
A military spokesman declined repeated requests for comment.
Civil-military relations have long been fraught in Pakistan, with the military ruling the country for nearly half of its 70-year history. The little-known Muslim group at the center of the protests, Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan, is demanding the resignation of Pakistani Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid over a hastily abandoned amendment to the oath which election candidates must swear.
Demonstrators have linked the issue to blasphemy — a highly contentious matter in Muslim Pakistan that has fueled violence many times before.
“I don’t care if my wife and child go hungry, I don’t care if they die of hunger, for me nothing matters more than the honor of my Prophet,” Riaz Shah, a laborer from Lahore who has been at the sit-in since it began, told reporters.
Showing off broken teeth and a broken finger he said he received in Saturday’s fighting, Shah dismissed fears of military intervention, saying the army “would not come here and dishonor the Prophet.”
He vowed to stay until the protesters’ demands are met.
At a main stage set up at the center of the sit-in, demonstrators were playing religious songs as more groups arrived. A military helicopter flew briefly overhead, but otherwise few members of the security forces were in sight.
State schools and universities across Punjab Province, Pakistan’s most populous, would stay closed today and tomorrow, Lahore’s top education officer said, while universities in Karachi also announced closures.
Private television broadcasts remained blocked and social media sites were restricted, sparking confusion about the state of protests and how authorities planned to respond to the spiraling situation.
“I don’t have any clue what is happening,” Naeem, a resident, told reporters in an Islamabad market.
“Only Allah is running this country,” he added, complaining that the only channel working was Pakistan state TV — and it was airing a children’s program.
“People’s businesses have been destroyed, people are unable to go on their jobs, to hospitals, they are not sending their children to schools,” resident Maqbool Ahmed said.
“The army should not only contain the situation, but disperse them by beating them with clubs,” he added.
The violence is the latest in a series of blows to the beleaguered Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government as general elections approach next year.
In July, Nawaz Sharif was ousted as prime minister by the courts over graft allegations, while Pakistani Minister of Finance Ishaq Dar — also accused of corruption — has taken indefinite medical leave.
Analysts said the government had allowed a relatively small protest by an obscure group to grow into a headline-grabbing and potentially dangerous situation.
“This government has dodged many bullets over the last few years, but it certainly faces a particularly daunting test right now,” analyst Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center in Washington told reporters.
Its ability to survive “depends on the trajectory of the protests,” he said.
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