At least one police officer has been killed and dozens of people injured in Pakistan as supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan have clashed with security forces outside the capital, Islamabad, officials and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party say.
Authorities enforced a security lockdown for the past two days in the country after Khan called for the march on parliament and a sit-in to demand his release.
On Monday, one police officer was shot and killed, at least 119 others were injured and 22 police vehicles were torched in clashes just outside Islamabad and elsewhere in Punjab province, provincial police chief Usman Anwar said. Two officers were in critical condition, he added.
The PTI said scores of its workers have also been injured in the rally so far.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said those responsible for the death of the police officer would face justice.
Speaking at the funeral of Constable Muhammad Mubashir in Rawalpindi, Naqvi said it’s not the first time police officers have been killed during political protests.
“Last time too they assaulted … our personnel who were martyred, and today we had to have another funeral again,” Naqvi told the media.
“Those who called the protesters, they will be held responsible for this death. We will not spare anybody, and there will be cases registered against all of them.”
The protest march, which Khan has described as the “final call”, is one of many his party has held to seek his release since he was jailed in August last year.
His party said the jailed leader’s third wife, Bushra Bibi, and a key aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, who is the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, led the march that arrived just outside Islamabad on Monday night.
“Physically, it has been very challenging to constantly travel in this cold, but our spirits are high, and we look forward to reach our destination later tonight,” PTI leader Asim Arbab told Al Jazeera on arriving at the entry point to Islamabad.
Islamabad shut down
In response to the PTI’s calls for protests in Islamabad, the government imposed measures such as shutting down the city’s entry and exit points and enforcing internet blackouts. Shipping containers were used to block major roads and streets in the city, and police and paramilitary personnel patrolled in riot gear.
Officials and witnesses said all public transport between cities and terminals had also been shut down in the eastern province to keep away the protesters, and gatherings in Islamabad have been banned.
All schools in the capital and the adjacent city of Rawalpindi, which were closed on Monday, will also remain closed on Tuesday, authorities said.
Naqvi said security forces showed “extreme restraint” in confronting the protesters, some of whom he said had fired live rounds while police used rubber bullets and fired tear gas canisters.
“It is easy to respond a bullet with a bullet,” he said.
But Khan’s party accused the government of using excessive violence to block the protesters and said hundreds of its workers and leaders had been arrested.
“They are even firing live bullets,” one of Khan’s aides, Shaukat Yousafzai, told Geo News.
Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Geo News TV that the government had held talks with PTI leaders to calm down the situation, “but it didn’t yield any results.”
Sayed Zulfi Bukhari, a senior PTI leader and close aide to Khan, categorically rejected Asif’s assertion and said no kind of negotiations had occurred with the government.
“We have entered Islamabad, and there is no need for us to talk to the government,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Our demands are not unreasonable at all, and it is something that every citizen of Pakistan should ask for.”
