Pakistan’s capital was placed on lockdown on Saturday, overrun by safety forces with cellular web outages as supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan tried to take to the streets in protest.
Sidelined by dozens of authorized circumstances, Khan was banned from working in February’s election, which was marred by allegations of rigging.
However his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social gathering has defied the crackdown and put stress on the federal government with common protests.
PTI activists started driving in direction of Islamabad on Friday from their energy base within the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, however have been met with container roadblocks and volleys of tear gasoline.
On Saturday, small, scattered convoys pressed into Islamabad in defiance of the federal government, which authorised the deployment of troops on the streets, citing the necessity to guarantee safety forward of the Shanghai Cooperation Group (SCO) summit opening on the fifteenth. of October.
Inside Minister Mohsin Naqvi later advised native media that greater than 550 folks have been arrested.
Protests have been additionally anticipated in Lahore on Saturday, nonetheless the principle freeway linking the jap megacity with the capital was blocked.
“I’m very pleased with all our folks,” learn a message from Khan posted on social media web site X on Saturday afternoon. “You demonstrated unwavering resilience and braveness if you went out yesterday and overcame unbelievable obstacles.”
Amnesty Worldwide mentioned the communications blackouts and highway blockades “infringe folks’s proper to freedom of expression, entry to info, peaceable meeting and motion.”
“These restrictions are a part of a worrying crackdown on the precise to protest in Pakistan,” the rights group mentioned.
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Khan, 72, served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted in a parliamentary vote of no confidence after falling out with the highly effective navy institution, thought-about Pakistan’s political energy.
As opposition chief, he led an unprecedented marketing campaign of defiance earlier than changing into embroiled in a collection of court docket circumstances which he claims have been orchestrated to stop his return to energy.
