ISLAMABAD: A spokesperson for jailed ex-premier Imran Khan said on Tuesday Bushra Khan, the former PM’s wife, and key party leader Ali Amin Gandapur, who were leading demonstrations in Islamabad to demand Khan’s release, had left a protest caravan but were safe amid widespread media reports they had been arrested.

At least six people, including four paramilitary soldiers and two protesters, were killed during clashes between security forces and protesters who made it on Monday night to the edge of Islamabad’s highly fortified red zone, home to key government and diplomatic buildings, before being pushed back by hundreds of security forces, according to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. 

“We are trying to secure Bushra Bibi and Ali Amin for the next few hours because we have credible sources that the law enforcement plans to arrest them with a heavy hand,” Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari, a spokesman for the PTI party told Arab News when asked if Bushra and Gandapur had left the protest caravan. He confirmed they had not been arrested. 

Bukhari declined to disclose where the two protest leaders were but confirmed that their protest caravan, which was nearing the D-Chowk public square in the red zone, had been pushed further back to the capital’s Chongi 26 area by “hundreds” of security officials. 

Two security officials, declining to be named, told Arab News an “operation” had been launched against the PTI protest, declining further details.

Pakistani local media widely reported that police chased cars carrying Bushra and Gandapur, but their vehicles entered Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a northwestern province where PTI is in power and where the federal government does not have jurisdiction. 

Supporters of Khan’s PTI on Tuesday reached D-Chowk for a “do or die” sit-in that they say will go on until Khan is freed from prison. 

The former premier has been jailed since August last year and faces a slew of charges from corruption to terrorism that he says are politically motivated to keep him behind bars and away from politics. 

Speaking to reporters, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi ruled out talks with protesters. 

“In today’s meeting, the clear-cut decision of the prime minister and others is that there will be no talks with these protesters,” Naqvi said after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met his cabinet and other top officials on Tuesday evening. 

Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said the government had agreed to offer the protesters space on the outskirts of Islamabad to hold their protest and would have facilitated them in their activities. 

“But why do they want to go to D-Chowk?” the information minister asked. “Because they want to cause damage to the life and property of Islamabad’s citizens. They have among them Afghan nationals, terrorists, dacoits.” 

In a message shared with supporters from jail by his team, Khan, 72, urged his followers to stay peaceful but to stand firm till the end. 

“My message for my team is to fight until the last ball is bowled. We will not back down until our demands are met!”

LOCKDOWN

As thousands of rally goers left for Islamabad on Sunday in protest caravans, authorities shut down major highways leading to the capital and used shipping containers to block major roads and streets inside the city. Mobile Internet links and apps like WhatsApp have been down since the weekend and schools have been closed for several days in the capital and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi. 

Last week, the district administration also banned public gatherings in Islamabad for two months, and on Monday, the interior ministry invoked Article 245, calling in the army to maintain law and order. 

On Tuesday afternoon, protest leader Ali Amin Gandapur urged protesters to camp at the D-Chowk square and not advance further into the red zone. 

“D-Chowk means D-Chowk,” the chief minister told supporters from atop a truck en route to the public square. “Beyond that, as long as Imran Khan’s orders, Imran Khan’s instructions are not given, we will not go beyond that area and we will respect his instructions.”

Amnesty International called on the Pakistan government to protect and ensure the rights of protesters and “immediately rescind the ‘shoot-on-sight’ orders that provide undue and excessive powers to the military.”

“The severe restrictions on assembly, movement and mobile and Internet services as well as arbitrary detentions of thousands of protesters across Pakistan, particularly in Islamabad, are a grave violation of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, movement and expression,” the rights group said on X.

KARACHI: The Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad on Tuesday rejected reports of fuel shortages after an oil tankers association said the supply of petrol to the federal capital and several cities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province had been “severely affected” due to a protest march being led by an opposition party.

Major roads and highways leading to the capital have been sealed off since last week when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of jailed former premier Imran Khan launched a protest ‘long march’ to Islamabad on Sunday. The city has been in complete lockdown since, with shipping containers used to block major roads and streets inside Islamabad also. 

“Reports of petroleum products crisis in the city are baseless and unfounded,” District Magistrate Irfan Nawaz Memon wrote on X. “There is a sufficient stock of petroleum products at petrol pumps.”

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Oil Tanker Contractors Association had said closed routes had stalled the delivery of petrol to several parts of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, and Islamabad. 

“Routes to Islamabad, Rawalpindi and North Punjab are closed due to which supply from petrol tankers is severely affected,” association spokesperson Noman But said in a statement. “Thousands of tankers are waiting for the route to open.”

Butt said petrol had not been supplied to Gujranwala, Jhelum, Sialkot and Kharian districts in Punjab for the last three days, while supply to Islamabad, Kohala and the northern city of Gilgit was also affected. 

“Petrol has run out at pumps in many cities,” he added.

Khan’s party aims to pressure the government to release him from jail. He has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated. The party is also protesting against what it says was rigging in the Feb. 8 general elections and calling on the government to roll back the recently passed 26th constitutional amendment, which the PTI says is an attack of judicial independence. The government denies this. 

PTI supporters broke through barricades and clashed with police as they marched on the capital late on Monday evening, with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi saying three paramilitary troops and one policeman had been killed in clashes.

The PTI said in a statement two of its supporters were confirmed dead while over 30 were wounded.