Alright so just came back from D chowk.
1- This truly is a national dharna/rally/march. People from all walks of life. Daily wage workers, pathans, Punjabis, traders, farmers, saw a 75 year old man from GB who had a whole rucksack, the burger crowd with jeans wearing women (not that I have anything against that), O/A level Froebels students wali awam and their parents in Audis (yes, I did see an Audi), Bhakkar ka aik group, the middle class from G10 and G11, and so on. Everyone felt comfortable, and totally peaceful.
2- No destruction of property, no hooliganism, heck, people aren't invading getting inside the metro stations or ransacking them. No nothing. The fires are for countering the tear gas, and people are now taking care to light them up on pavement or concrete so it doesn't spread.
3- I was about to leave when intense shelling started. There were women, old people, young people, children, and men all in one place just protesting and raising slogans. They weren't destroying property, weren't doing anything. Why do the shelling? Just before that, saw a Rangers company moving from Margalla road towards D chowk from Haunted hill side.
4- The people right now are more than 10k from my conservative estimates. The real rally is coming, and there is one stuck near Sangjani.
My analysis until tomorrow:
IK will reach around fajr, perhaps even later. Govt will probably try and stop him at Peshawar Mor or Zero Point. Meanwhile, the local population will leave in an hour or so max probably, especially after the indiscriminate shelling. This shelling is to disperse the rapidly building crowd on Jinnah avenue. It stretches from D chowk all the way to 7th avenue. The tactic seems to be to disperse these protestors, and then stop IK at the above points.
Tomorrow morning and afternoon, the march participants would try and find shade from the sun and go to the streets or other places, and disperse themselves. That would be the perfect moment for the government to launch a crackdown against the already thin strength, and get things under control. If it fails to do so, well then I don't want to think that.
Right now, there are about 500 people each sitting roadside on the H11 graveyard signal and G11 signal, and even more at Peshawar Mor (on the interchange itself and kashmir highway). I did not go to zero point, but I reckon there are even more there.