Situation remains tense in Islamabad as Faizabad sit-in enters day 21
Police and paramilitary forces pulled back after their clearance operation turned violent.
ISLAMABAD(Dunya News) - Sit-in protest by Tehreek-e-Labaik continued on 21st day in Faizabad on Sunday while the federal government has summoned army men to control the situation.
On Saturday, violent clashes between protestors and law enforcement personnel left seven dead and 417 injured. Countrywide protests erupted when police and paramilitary forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse Tehreek-e-Labaik protestors from Faizabad.
Police and paramilitary forces pulled back after their clearance operation turned deadly. The security forces were met by stubborn resistance by protesters who blocked roads and torched vehicles around the site of the sit-in.
An interior ministry order said the federal government had authorised the deployment of "sufficient troops" to "control law and order" in the capital until further notice. By daylight on Sunday there was no official military response and no sign of armoured vehicles or soldiers on the streets.
Private television broadcasts remained blocked and social media sites were restricted.
The protestors are demanding that Pakistan’s law minister Zahid Hamid resign over a hastily-abandoned amendment to the oath that election candidates must swear. Demonstrators have linked it to blasphemy -- a highly contentious issue in Muslim Pakistan.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators are believed to be still occupying roads and intersections connecting Islamabad with neighbouring Rawalpindi, with protesters posting videos late Saturday night of funeral prayers being recited at the sit-in.
The violent clashes spurred similar protests in major cities and towns nationwide.
Police in Karachi said some 200 protesters had blockaded a major road in the southern port, with at least 27 injured -- including 22 people with gunshot wounds -- brought to hospital, according to doctors.
Markets and shops were shuttered in the megacity, Pakistan’s commercial hub, as alarmed residents stayed inside, while hardline clerics urged more people to take to the streets.
Analysts said the government had allowed a minor issue to grow into a headline-grabbing and potentially dangerous situation.
WATCH DUNYA NEWS LIVE:
