Pakistan’s army deployed to D-Chowk ahead of pro-Khan rally – DW – 11/26/2024

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) information secretary has urged protesters who have arrived at the D-Chowk square in Islamabad to remain peaceful in a post on the platform X.

He also told protesters not to go beyond D-Chowk.

D-Chowk lies on the edge of the highly fortified Red Zone of the capital, which contains multiple diplomatic missions and key government buildings.

Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said that the army had been deployed to protect diplomatic missions in Islamabad’s fortified Red Zone area.

The area is the site of many government buildings and embassies.

The army took control of the major D-Chowk square in the area, with paramilitary rangers and police also involved in security measures.

Visiting Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was staying in the Red Zone on Tuesday as part of an official trip.

One convoy of supporters on its way to D-Chowk included Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, who was jailed in a graft case alongside her husband. Bibi was recently released on bail.

Imran Khan, 72, is a former cricketer who served as prime minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted in a no-confidence vote.

He faces over 150 criminal cases and has been in jail for over a year.

Khan’s PTI party claims that the charges are politically motivated.

Khan has been behind bars since his first conviction in a corruption case in August, 2023.

He was sentenced in that case to 14 years in prison, alongside his wife Bushra Bibi, for selling state gifts worth millions of rupees while in government. Bibi was released last month after the sentences were suspended on appeal. But Khan cannot be released due to a string of pending cases against him.

Khan founded the PTI in 1996, although its first major electoral victory was in 2013, when it took over the provincial government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and then won its first federal election in 2018.

Candidates supported by the PTI won the largest share of seats in Pakistan’s parliament in a February election in which they were forced to run as independents.

Supporters of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan broke through a police barricade in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday.

Islamabad has been under a lockdown since late Saturday, and over 20,000 police personnel have been deployed in the city.

Khan had called for a rally near Pakistan’s parliament to demand his release and the current government’s resignation.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said four members of the paramilitary Rangers force died after being “run over by a vehicle.”

There were also reports of several people being wounded, including journalists who had been attacked by Khan supporters.

Convoys of supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have traveled to Islamabad from northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and the eastern province of Punjab.

sdi/nm (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)