Security forces clear Islamabad of Imran Khan supporters, PTI says 8 party workers killed but protests to continue

Islamabad: At least eight supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf There was a massive crackdown by security forces overnight to disperse protesters demanding the release of jailed former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan, who the party said was killed and dozens injured in Islamabad.
After the crackdown, Imran’s party ended its agitation but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, addressing a press conference in his province on Wednesday, said the protests would continue. “Until Imran Khan calls, this sit-in will continue,” he said without elaborating on where it would be held. PTI is in government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Thousands of demonstrators, led by Imran’s wife Bushra Bibi and Gandapur, gathered in the capital on Tuesday and vowed to stage a sit-in until their demands, including the release of political prisoners, were met. Khan and several other PTI leaders and activists have been in jail for over a year and claim they are politically motivated.
Security forces launched a massive crackdown before midnight on Tuesday after failing to stop protesters from marching towards D-Chowk, a public square in Islamabad’s high-security red zone. In the evening the authorities forced the closure of surrounding stores, cafes and markets and then turned off the streetlights, plunging the protest site into darkness. Witnesses said the indiscriminate firing and teargas shelling, which began after 11pm and continued for nearly two hours, forced PTI supporters, mostly Pashtuns from the northwest, to retreat.
The PTI claimed eight of its supporters were killed in the late-night clashes and “hundreds” more were feared dead. The government said three paramilitary forces and one policeman had been killed since the PTI started protests on Sunday. Islamabad’s police chief told media that more than 900 people were arrested in Tuesday’s raid, including dozens of Afghan nationals.
Sources at two public hospitals in Islamabad said five civilians died of gunshot wounds and dozens were injured. According to PTI activists, they recovered three dead bodies from the protest site.
Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said the protesters fled in a chaotic manner, leaving behind vehicles and even shoes and clothes.
PTI said in a post on social media that “there has been a massacre at the hands of security forces in Pakistan”. He accused the armed security forces of launching a violent attack on peaceful PTI protesters, firing live rounds with the aim of killing as many people as possible. She went on to compare last night’s clashes with the violence in the then East Pakistan in 1971. “The rulers have learned nothing from history and are willing to destroy the country to cling to their illegitimate power,” the post said. “With hundreds dead and countless injured, threatening to assassinate the interior minister, and then declaring ‘victory’ over slaughtered innocents is proof enough of the regime’s inhumanity.”
On Wednesday morning, the heavily fortified Red Zone was empty of protesters, but dozens of wrecked vehicles, including the charred remains of a truck from which Imran’s wife was leading the protest, presented a grim picture.