Pakistan ends lockdown of its capital after protests : NPR

Paramilitary soldiers stand guard along roadside to ensure security in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday.

Paramilitary troopers stand guard alongside roadside to make sure safety in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday.

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ISLAMABAD — Authorities reopened roads linking Pakistan’s capital with the remainder of the nation, ending a four-day lockdown, on Wednesday after utilizing tear gasoline and firing into the air to disperse supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan who marched to Islamabad to demand his launch from jail.

Supporters of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, burn bushes to reduce the impact of tear gas shells fired by police officers to disperse them during a rally demanding Khan's release, at a motorway in Ghazi in Attock district, Pakistan on Sunday.

“All roads are being reopened, and the demonstrators have been dispersed,” Inside Minister Mohsin Naqvi stated.

Khan’s spouse, Bushra Bibi, who was main the protest, and different demonstrators fled in automobiles when police pushed again towards the rallygoers following clashes by which at the least seven individuals have been killed.

Traffic police officers remove a damaged vehicle left behind by supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, when security forces launched an operation Tuesday night to disperse them, in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday.

Visitors law enforcement officials take away a broken automobile left behind by supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf occasion, when safety forces launched an operation Tuesday night time to disperse them, in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday.

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The police operation got here hours after 1000’s of Khan supporters, defying authorities warnings, broke by way of a barrier of transport containers blocking Islamabad and entered a high-security zone, the place they clashed with safety forces.

Pedestrians walk along a road engulfed in thick smog in Lahore on Nov. 11, 2024. Lahore, a city of 14 million people stuffed with factories on the border with India, regularly ranks among the world's most polluted cities, but it has hit record levels this month.

Pressure has been excessive in Islamabad since Sunday when supporters of the previous prime minister started a “lengthy march” from the restive northwest to demand his launch. Khan has been in a jail for over a yr and faces greater than 150 prison instances that his occasion says are politically motivated.

A whole lot of demonstrators have been arrested since Sunday.

Security officials examine the site of a bomb explosion at railway station in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan on Saturday.

Bibi and leaders of her husband’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf occasion fled to Mansehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the place the occasion nonetheless guidelines.

Khan, who stays a preferred opposition determine, was ousted in 2022 by way of a no-confidence vote in Parliament.