Pakistan’s capital was locked down on Saturday, with security forces cutting off mobile internet, as supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan attempted to take over the streets in protest.
Khan was barred from running in the February elections, which were plagued by allegations of rigging, and was sidelined by dozens of legal cases.
But his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has rejected the government’s strictness through regular demonstrations.
PTI activists began moving towards Islamabad from their powerbase in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday, but faced shipping container roadblocks and tear gas shells.
On Saturday, small and scattered convoys moved towards Islamabad in defiance of the government, which has ordered the deployment of troops on the roads, citing the need to guarantee security ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit starting on October 15. Was approved.
“I am very proud of all our people,” Khan said in a message posted Saturday afternoon on the social media site X. “You showed incredible resilience and courage by coming out yesterday and overcoming incredible odds.”
Protests were also scheduled to take place in Lahore on Saturday, although the main motorway linking the eastern megacity to the capital was blocked.
Amnesty International said that communications cuts and road blockades “violate people’s rights to freedom of expression, access to information, peaceful assembly and movement”.
“These restrictions are part of a worrying crackdown on the right to protest in Pakistan,” the human rights group said.
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Khan, 72, served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote following differences with the powerful military establishment, considered Pakistan’s political kingmaker.
As opposition leader he led an unprecedented campaign of defiance before becoming embroiled in several court cases he claims were a plot to prevent his return to power.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
