ISLAMABAD: Thousands of demonstrators marched into the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Sunday to protest the hanging of a man charged with murdering a secular governor.
Police officer Muhammed Akram said that security forces used blockades and tear gas but could not disperse the crowd, who gathered in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and then marched to Islamabad.
The protesters were marching against the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri in February. Qadri was charged for the 2011 murder of governor Salman Taseer, who was defending a Christian woman jailed on blasphemy charges.
Another police officer, Muhammad Nasim, said that the march of around ten thousand people was peaceful initially, but as the crowds reached an avenue leading to parliament the protesters turned violent, smashing windows and damaging bus stations.
Malik Ahsan, a doctor at Islamabad’s main hospital, said that 13 people were wounded in the demonstration. Most of them were police officers admitted to hospital after having been hit with stones.
Police used tear gas in an abortive attempt to stop the unruly crowd as they approached parliament. People in offices close to the parliament building said they were affected by the gas. Witnesses said that protesters torched police barricades and lit fire to bushes.
The protest leaders, speaking from a truck close to parliament, called on demonstrators not to be scared and to advance on the government building, but the crowd thinned. The leaders said they would hold a sit-in until their demands are met, but did not specify what their demands are.
The army was called in to control the situation and stationed troops outside parliament, army spokesman Maj.Gen Asim Salim Bajwa said.
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Thousands in Pakistan protest hanging of governor’s killer
Thousands in Pakistan protest hanging of governor’s killer
Trump says school strike that killed 150 people ‘done by Iran’
- Tehran has blamed the US for the strike, which happened in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province on Feb. 28
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed Iran for what the country’s authorities said was a deadly strike on a school in the southern town of Minab.
“We think it was done by Iran. Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
According to Iranian authorities, a strike hit a girls’ elementary school last Saturday, killing more than 150 people, mostly students.
Israel and the United States have not claimed responsibility for the reported attack — with US officials saying it remains under investigation — while Iran has blamed Washington for the strike.
AFP has neither been able to access the site in order to verify the incident, nor to obtain independent confirmation of a toll.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had targeted a US base in the UAE that they alleged had been used as a launchpad for the strike.
“Al-Dhafra air base, belonging to American terrorists in the region, was targeted using drones and precision missiles,” the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state TV.
The Pentagon has confirmed it is investigating, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US would “not deliberately target a school.”
The New York Times newspaper reported Thursday that US military statements indicating forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz, where a Revolutionary Guards’ base is located, “suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike.”
An analysis of social media posts from the time of the attack, as well as photos and videos from witnesses, indicated that the school had been struck at the same time as Guards’ naval base sites, the Times said.
“We think it was done by Iran. Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
According to Iranian authorities, a strike hit a girls’ elementary school last Saturday, killing more than 150 people, mostly students.
Israel and the United States have not claimed responsibility for the reported attack — with US officials saying it remains under investigation — while Iran has blamed Washington for the strike.
AFP has neither been able to access the site in order to verify the incident, nor to obtain independent confirmation of a toll.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had targeted a US base in the UAE that they alleged had been used as a launchpad for the strike.
“Al-Dhafra air base, belonging to American terrorists in the region, was targeted using drones and precision missiles,” the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state TV.
The Pentagon has confirmed it is investigating, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US would “not deliberately target a school.”
The New York Times newspaper reported Thursday that US military statements indicating forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz, where a Revolutionary Guards’ base is located, “suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike.”
An analysis of social media posts from the time of the attack, as well as photos and videos from witnesses, indicated that the school had been struck at the same time as Guards’ naval base sites, the Times said.
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