By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A march by hundreds of supporters to demand the release of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan reached the fringes of Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad on Monday, his party and officials said, amid reports of violence elsewhere.
Authorities have enforced a security lockdown for the last two days to block the protesters, whom Khan has called on to march on parliament for a sit-in demonstration, while highways into the city have been barricaded.
The government has used shipping containers to block major roads and streets in Islamabad, most of them patrolled by large contingents of police and paramilitary personnel in riot gear.
Officials and witnesses said all public transport between cities and terminals has also been shut down in the eastern province of Punjab to keep away the protesters, led by members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
“We wouldn’t let them storm the capital,” said provincial Information Minister Uzma Bukhari, adding that about 80 of Khan’s supporters had been arrested.
Several police officials were injured in clashes and rioting at some places in the province, she told a news conference.
The capital added an extra layer of security ahead of a visit by the president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, set to arrive on Monday.
Khan’s party accused the government of using violent tactics to block the protesters, saying it had arrested hundreds of workers and leaders.
“They are even firing live bullets,” one of Khan’s aides, Shaukat Yousafzai, told broadcaster Geo News TV.
Gatherings of any sort in Islamabad have been banned, police said in a statement. Authorities closed all schools in Islamabad and the adjacent garrison city of Rawalpindi, while the internet and WhatsApp messaging services also slowed.
The protest march, which Khan has described as the “final call”, is one of many his party had held to seek his release since he was jailed in August last year. The party’s most recent protest in Islamabad, early in October, turned violent.
Khan’s third wife, Bushra Bibi, and a key aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, who is the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, are leading a rally that arrived just outside Islamabad on Sunday night, his party said.
Voted out of power by parliament in 2022 after falling out with Pakistan’s powerful military, Khan faces charges ranging from corruption to instigation of violence, all of which he and his party deny.
The military has an outsized role in politics, and mostly decides who will rule the South Asian nation of 241 million.
(This story has been refiled to correct a grammatical error in paragraph 10)
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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