PESHAWAR: Protesters in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday damaged government buildings, including the joint workspace of the country’s state-owned radio station and official news agency, the election commission’s office and a school run by the Frontier Corps, following ex-PM Imran Khan’s arrest, confirmed officials.
According to medical officials, at least five people have lost their lives in in the province during the demonstrations that began across the country after the former prime minister was arrested on graft charges from the judicial complex in Islamabad on Tuesday.
“Eighty percent of the Radio Pakistan building has been damaged and most of its rooms have been completely destroyed by fire,” Ikram Ullah Marwat, who works as senior producer with the broadcast facility in Peshawar, told Arab News.
A satellite overview of fires near Radio Pakistan Office and protests in the aftermath of the arrest of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Peshawar, Pakistan, May 10, 2023. (Reuters)
“The news section on the first floor has been completely burnt.”
Marwat said protesters set four Radio Pakistan vehicles on fire, adding that the Chaghi Monument in front of his office building, which was installed to commemorate the country’s nuclear tests in May 1998, had already been targeted within a few hours of Khan’s arrest on May 9.
Supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party also stormed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) building in Peshawar where they burnt three motorbikes and a vehicle. The protesters also shattered the windows of the ECP office, though police officials said it was too early to estimate the damage to the building.
According to the authorities in the province’s Lower Dir district, a group of violent protesters tried to enter the government facility for Dir Scouts and climbed the main gate.
“Then they entered the Frontier Corp. school located in front of the Dir Scouts building and set it on fire,” said the police deployed in the area.
Law enforcement officials also confirmed that protesters plundered an ammunition shop in the Hashtnagri neighborhood in Peshawar.
“It is hard to say about the quantity of stolen weapons,” said a spokesperson at the area’s police station. “But the shop was looted and some weapons have been recovered so far.”
Meanwhile, Muhammad Asim, the media manager for the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, told Arab News that dozens were injured during the protests.
“Five people have died so far and 92 are injured,” he said, adding that most people came to the medical facility with “bullet wounds.”
