Deadly Clashes With Police Erupt at Pakistan Protests
SLAMABAD, Pakistan — Violent clashes between the police and opponents of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif swept across Pakistan’s Punjab Province on Saturday, leaving at least two people dead and more than 100 injured as Mr. Sharif’s 14-month-old government sought to forestall a series of planned street protests aimed at ousting it.
For the second consecutive day, the Pakistani police confronted supporters of Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, a firebrand preacher who has vowed to topple Mr. Sharif through a “peaceful revolution.” The cleric’s supporters — some of them armed with staves, others wearing gas masks — overturned police barricades and engaged in street battles in towns across Punjab, Mr. Sharif’s political power base.
One of Mr. Qadri’s supporters died during clashes in Bhakkar, while 130 people were injured and 22 officers were taken hostage, the police said in a statement.
The escalating violence caused Mr. Qadri to cancel a protest against Mr. Sharif that had been scheduled for Lahore on Sunday. During a press conference outside his home in Lahore on Saturday, Mr. Qadri instructed supporters to mount smaller demonstrations in their home cities across the province.
The clashes deepened the sense of crisis surrounding Mr. Sharif’s government, whose power has already been undermined by a troubled relationship with the country’s military leadership. The prime minister now faces the prospect of a series of major streets protests led by Mr. Qadri and, more substantively, his rival in the opposition, Imran Khan.
Mr. Khan, a former cricket star and leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, has said he will hold a “million man march” in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on the country’s Independence Day, Aug. 14. The point of the demonstration, Mr. Khan said, is to protest what he has alleged was vote-rigging during the general election in May 2013. Mr. Khan has said he will lead a sit-in outside Parliament until Mr. Sharif accedes to his demand for a new election.
Mr. Khan has staked much on the protest. While his party rules the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, his goal is to replace Mr. Sharif as the major force in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and influential province. Mr. Khan has built pressure on Mr. Sharif this year with a series of rallies. In speeches, he has portrayed the Aug. 14 protest as a decisive moment in his career.
Mr. Sharif has responded robustly, using the law and security forces to outmaneuver his opponents. He has attempted to stymie Mr. Khan’s plans by invoking a colonial-era public order law that temporarily bans political protests in Islamabad.
Analysts have said that Mr. Sharif’s reaction to the challenges has been heavy-handed and disproportionate, and that it has frequently fanned the protests that he has sought to quell. Perhaps in response to those critics, Mr. Sharif on Saturday publicly urged Mr. Khan to call off his protest and to resolve the crisis through political talks.
The picture has been further complicated by the return of Mr. Qadri. Normally a resident of Canada, he organized protests against the previous government, which was led by President Asif Ali Zardari, in January 2013. Mr. Qadri returned to Pakistan in June, promising to peacefully overthrow Mr. Sharif, whom he called corrupt and autocratic.
But the movement quickly became mired in bloodshed when the police killed nine of Mr. Qadri’s supporters outside his Lahore home in June. Those deaths became a rallying point for Mr. Qadri’s supporters, who have since taken to the streets.
“We are here at the call of the leader, and we want a revolution,” said Gulham Datagir, 18, as he held a baton outside Mr. Qadri’s house on Friday.
Reports of close ties between Mr. Qadri and the country’s army have caused some Pakistanis to fear that his protests could lead to a military coup. At a news conference outside his Islamabad home on Friday, Mr. Khan suggested that the military could intervene if his Islamabad sit-in was thwarted. “The responsibility will lie squarely on Nawaz Sharif if the army steps in,” he said.
Mr. Khan and Mr. Qadri have denied any links to the military, and there is little evidence to support the fears of a military takeover. Still, it is an open secret that the army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, is unhappy with Mr. Sharif for his refusal to allow Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the former military leader currently facing trial for treason, to leave Pakistan.
The prime minister has the support of several opposition parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party and the religious Jamaat-e-Islami, whose leaders have tried to mediate between Mr. Sharif and Mr. Khan in recent weeks. But if that fails, Mr. Sharif has said he would physically prevent any protest on Aug. 14.
The government has announced plans to seal roads leading to Islamabad and to curtail fuel supplies to vehicles carrying opposition supporters. Paramilitary soldiers have been deployed in Islamabad and Lahore, and army troops are in the capital to deter attacks in retaliation to the military operation in the North Waziristan tribal district, along the border with the Afghanistan, which started in June.
Source: www.nytimes.com
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