ISLAMABAD: Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s supporters had planned to “take over the capital through violent protests,” a Pakistan government spokesperson said on Thursday, a day after security forces dispersed marchers who had breached security barricades to reach the heart of Islamabad to demand Khan’s release.

Thousands of supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had gathered at the city’s historic D-Chowk square on Tuesday after setting out on Sunday in a protest convoy led by Khan’s wife Bushra Khan and Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of the PTI stronghold province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The convoy broke through several lines of security and reached the edge of the capital’s highly fortified red zone, home to key government and diplomatic buildings. 

The protest was called off after security forces raided the site in complete darkness soon after midnight on Wednesday, firing rubber bullets and tear gas, according to police and government officials who deny using live ammunition during the operation, which police conducted alongside paramilitary forces. The PTI says at least 20 of its supporters have been killed, while the government says four troops died. 

The Islamabad police chief said on Wednesday 954 people, including Afghan nationals, had been arrested since the protest march began on Sunday.

“They were not peaceful protesters at all as they were armed with guns and slingshots,” Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said at a briefing with members of foreign media in Islamabad. “They wanted to take over the capital through violent protests.”

The minister said the government took “preventative measures” to defuse the situation, denying the use of live ammunition and direct fire on protesters by security forces.

“Both the public hospitals in Islamabad, Polyclinic and PIMS [Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences], have categorically denied receiving any dead bodies of protesters or any gunshot wounds victims,” the information minister said. 

“There was no live ammunition with the security forces. Let me say categorically that no massacre was carried out to disperse the protesters.”

The minister accused the PTI of putting out “fake pictures and videos” on social media to exaggerate casualties. 

Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, also present at the briefing, asked the PTI to share the names of its supporters who had been killed, saying the government had exercised “utmost restraint” to prevent bloodshed at the hands of what he described as a “violent mob.”

“The security forces used teargas to disperse the thin number of the armed protesters,” Iqbal added. “We defused the situation with the least intervention of the security forces.”

Gandapur, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province who was leading the protests and fled when the operation began, has accused authorities of using excessive force against protesters who he said were peaceful. He said “hundreds” had sustained bullet wounds.

“Both Imran Khan’s wife and I were attacked directly,” Gandapur told a press conference in the city of Mansehra in the province he rules.

Khan’s wife Bushra Khan escaped unhurt from the protest convoy when the raid began. The PTI had said she would address the press conference with Gandapur on Wednesday, but she did not appear even though the event was delayed by hours.

PTI spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari PTI said earlier that the protest seeking Khan’s release had been called off, citing what he called “the massacre.” But Gandapur said the protest was a “movement” and would continue until Khan himself called it off.