PTI March Coverage

ghazi52 · 2024-10-05T17:33:43+0500

https://twitter.com/x/status/1842280797195383146

Dozens arrested as PTI defies blockades to reach D-Chowk

Mohammad Ashfaq | Mohammad Asghar | Munawer Azeem
October 5, 2024

• Activists clash with police in twin cities; Jinnah Avenue witnesses pitched battles as marchers attempt to reach protest venue
• Over 600 containers deployed at 27 points in capital; KP protesters overcome trenches, other roadblocks with heavy machinery
• Gandapur vows to reach D-Chowk, even if it takes several days; Imran’s sisters Aleema, Uzma among those taken into custody
• Military patrols deployed to ‘maintain law and order’

(CLOCKWISE from top left) PTI workers throw back tear gas shells fired at them by police trying to stop their advance on D-Chowk in Islamabad; a trench is dug on the M1 motorway near Hassanabdal to prevent marchers from advancing; while Imran Khan’s sister Aleema is taken away by policewomen from the site of a protest in the capital, on Friday.— Mohammad Asim / White Star / AFP / Dawn

ISLAMABAD / RAWALPINDI / PESHAWAR: Hundreds of PTI activists, including senior leaders, gathered at multiple locations in the capital on Friday, defying heavy police blockades and road closures, while authorities dug trenches and placed iron nails on a stretch of the Islamabad-Peshawar motorway to prevent protesters from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from reaching the capital.

Despite the placing of hundreds of containers to secure entry points and key areas across the capital and the imposition of Section 144, demonstrators managed to converge at various sites, including the edge of the high-security Red Zone, at D-Chowk.

Police rounded up over 100 PTI members, including two sisters of party leader Imran Khan. Violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement officials were reported throughout the day, with several instances of stone-pelting and tear gas exchanges being witnessed.

ghazi52 · 2024-10-05T19:57:16+0500

https://twitter.com/x/status/1842541048851259529

ghazi52 · 2024-10-05T20:17:20+0500

Army deployed

Earlier on Friday, the federal government called in the army troops in Islamabad, ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit and several high-profile visits later this month in the wake of the protest calls given by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The decision to call in the army came on the heels of a complete lockdown of the twin cities because of the PTI's planned protest at D-Chowk - right in front of parliament in the Red Zone - with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur vowing to reach there at any cost.

The army has been deployed in addition to the paramilitary Rangers and Frontier Constabulary personnel. A notification issued by the interior ministry stated that the army would remain in the capital from October 5 to 17 for maintaining law and order situation.