In the early hours of Wednesday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announced the suspension of its high-stakes protest sit-in in Islamabad, following a day marked by clashes between security forces and protesters in the city’s Red Zone. The decision came after intense confrontations, including heavy teargas shelling by police to disperse supporters advancing toward the heavily barricaded D-Chowk late on Tuesday.
The fascist regime’s security personnel committed a massacre of unarmed, peaceful protestors. The full scale of casualties is slowly being confirmed due to internet shutdowns.
Armed security forces launched a violent assault on peaceful PTI protesters in Islamabad, firing live… pic.twitter.com/fwRgLMAf3b
— PTI (@PTIofficial) November 27, 2024
The PTI leadership, including Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, made a hasty retreat. Gandapur was heard advising protesters to “go home, have dinner, and return tomorrow.”
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Early Wednesday, the party released a statement on its official X account, citing the government’s “brutality” and its alleged plan to turn the capital into a “slaughterhouse for unarmed citizens” as reasons for suspending the peaceful protest. The statement also indicated that the future course of action would be determined based on directives from imprisoned PTI founder Imran Khan, following assessments by the party’s political and core committees.
The statement condemned the alleged killing of party workers and “terror and brutality against peaceful protesters.” It urged Pakistan’s Chief Justice Yahya Afridi to take suo motu notice of the alleged violence and to hold the prime minister, interior minister, and police chiefs in Islamabad and Punjab accountable for what it described as “attempted murder.”
Separately, an emergency press conference is scheduled to be held at 11 a.m. today by Bushra Bibi, CM Gandapur, and National Assembly Opposition Leader Omar Ayub Khan. According to PTI’s senior vice president of the Hazara chapter, Taimur Saleem Swati, the briefing will take place at the residence of KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati in Peshawar.
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Meanwhile, data services, which had been suspended for four days, have been restored in parts of Islamabad, including the Red Zone and Bani Gala, as well as in Rawalpindi, according to Dawn.com correspondents.
Tuesday’s clashes between PTI supporters and security forces left at least two people dead and over 60 injured, according to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). Polyclinic also treated injuries sustained by three policemen and 10 civilians. Over three days of protests, six fatalities were reported, including a policeman and three Rangers officials who died in a vehicle accident, officials and hospital sources confirmed.