A video has surfaced online showing Pakistani security forces pushing a man off a stack of shipping containers during a demonstration. according to BBCThe incident occurred on Tuesday when thousands of supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan gathered in Islamabad demanding his release from jail. Top aides to Mr Khan said the incident was one of several examples of police brutality at the protests and the protests have since been called off. According to the outlet, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the man was praying on top of a container when armed officers approached him and “brutally pushed him from a height equivalent to three floors”.
The clip shows a man praying atop a tower of 25-foot-tall shipping containers built to prevent protesters from reaching their destination. The security forces are then seen chasing him to the top, surrounding him and then pushing him off the side.
Take a look below:
Pakistani police throw a praying man from a three-story high stack of shipping containers pic.twitter.com/vjaVXza4Vb
– Bad cop? (@CopsGoneWrong) 27 November 2024
according to IndependentThe man’s condition remains unknown. A PTI official said the party was still investigating what happened to him.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has been battling protests for the past few days. At least six people died in clashes during the protests – four security forces and two civilians. On Wednesday, police in Islamabad also said 600 protesters had been arrested following Tuesday’s operation, bringing the total to more than 1,000 since the protests began.
On Sunday, Imran Khan’s party started a march towards Islamabad demanding the release of the jailed leader. The protesters said they would not leave the capital until Mr Khan, who is jailed on criminal charges including fraud, is released. However, as they moved towards Democracy Square on Tuesday, they were pushed back by police using tear gas.
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On Wednesday, PTI said the protests had been “temporarily suspended” due to “government brutality”. It said Pakistan government forces “violently attacked” peaceful protesters and “fired live rounds with the intention of killing as many people as possible”. The party also claimed, without providing evidence, that several party workers were killed during the crackdown and appealed for an investigation.
Law enforcement defended their actions, arguing that the protests had devolved into “terrorism” after security personnel were targeted and public property was damaged.
Notably, Imran Khan was arrested in 2023 on charges that he and his wife Bushra Bibi had accepted land as bribes through a trust. Mr Khan also faces anti-terrorism charges related to the clashes that followed his arrest. Other charges include unlawfully disclosing state secrets in 2022, for which he was acquitted, and an unlawful marriage in 2018, which also resulted in his acquittal.
