Just hours before thousands of Pakistani protesters reached Islamabad Saturday, fierce clashes erupted after an attack on a convoy led by opposition politician Imran Khan and fiery Canadian imam Tahir-ul-Qadri.

Clashes erupt as Pakistan opposition leader’s rally heads to capital

Just hours before thousands of Pakistani protesters reached the capital Islamabad early Saturday, fierce clashes erupted after an attack on a convoy led by opposition politician Imran Khan and fiery Canadian imam Tahir-ul-Qadri.

Khan’s car was first pelted with stones and then gunshots were fired at it, according to multiple reports. He was not injured, his spokesperson said.

Khan tweeted that four supporters of his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), were injured in the violence in Gujranwala on Friday, an industrial city in eastern Pakistan.

The “freedom march,” aimed at forcing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign immediately, will not stop, he said in a tweet.

Thousands of Pakistanis marched from Lahore to Islamabad, in what is being seen as the strongest challenge yet to Sharif, who took office in a landslide election win in May 2013.

The protesters left Lahore on Thursday and arrived in Islamabad Friday. They have vowed to stay there until their demand for a new government is met.

One convoy of protesters is led by Khan, the other by Qadri.

According to the BBC, Khan led a slow-moving convoy of motorbikes, cars, buses and trucks and addressed supporters in small towns en route to Islamabad. His convoy left Lahore, on of the country’s more populous cities, around midday Thursday and reached Gujranwala 20 hours later — a distance that is typically an hour’s drive.

Qadri and his group of thousands of anti-government protesters took a slightly longer route to avoid some potentially dangerous areas, Al Jazeera reported.

“The journey has been peaceful. We got the word last night at 3 a.m. that there was the possibility of attacks at certain places, when we had not reached Gujranwala . . . and we went through those areas quickly,” Qadri told Al Jazeera on Friday.

Both Khan and Qadri have said that they are angry about the sinking economy, growing militancy and the failure of the government to deliver important services like a steady electricity supply and clean drinking water.

Khan, who is revered in Pakistan for leading the national cricket team that won the 1992 World Cup, has also accused Sharif of not probing fraud in last year’s national elections.

Qadri has called for a military-backed government to take over from Sharif but has repeatedly denied being supported by the army, the BBC reported. Qadri, a Pakistani cleric who is also a Canadian citizen, commands a loyal following of thousands through his network of mosques and religious schools in Pakistan

This protest has galvanized Pakistanis, making headlines in newspapers and on TV news channels. Hundreds of Pakistanis have come out to watch the protesters’ convoy.

As the march led by Khan passed through Gujranwala on Friday, supporters of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N hurled stones at the convoy, Khan alleged. But PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah told the Dawn news channel that both sides threw stones at each other.

Mohammed Azeem, a police officer in Gujranwala, said some 200 ruling party supporters clashed with Khan’s protesters but that “the situation is under control.”

Islamabad, meanwhile, is bracing for yet another political confrontation that could drag on for days.

Thousands of security personnel have been deployed there, shipping containers and barbed wires have been used up to block traffic, and the mobile phone network has been partially suspended.

The two leaders and their supporters have agreed to assemble at Islamabad’s Zero Point, a sprawling avenue at the east end of the capital, away from residential and commercial centres and the red zone, which houses government establishments and foreign missions.

A BBC report said there is anxiety and uncertainty in Islamabad about what could happen on the streets.

Both leaders have said they will take one million of their followers into the streets of Islamabad. According to eye-witness reports, so far, a few thousand are estimated to be travelling with the twin marches.

Observers have said that those numbers could swell when they reach the outskirts of the capital.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country of 180 million people, has largely been ruled by military dictators since it was carved out of India in 1947. Last year’s election marked the first time that one elected civilian government had handed over power to another.

The army still wields much influence over life in Pakistan, which is battling several militant groups.

Late Thursday, attackers tried to storm two air bases in the southwestern city of Quetta, sparking a gun battle that killed 10 militants, police said.

Source: http://www.thestar.com/