MADRID 26 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Pakistani authorities announced this Monday the deployment of the Army in the country’s capital, Islamabad, after a police officer was killed and twenty were injured in clashes with groups of followers of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, to those who ask for liberation.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has taken this decision due to growing concerns over security in the federal capital. Thus, he has asked the security forces to act decisively against the “agitators and evildoers” and has even authorized them to take extreme measures such as shooting the “troublemakers” on the spot, according to information from the newspaper ‘The News International’.
Likewise, the initiative allows the Pakistani Armed Forces to impose a curfew in any locality in the country, if it so deems it, in order to maintain law and order.
The announcement comes after the security forces said that an officer “was killed by miscreants while carrying out his work in Hakla, when a convoy of Khan’s party, the Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has arrived in the area.
Subsequently, they have reported that four security force officers have lost their lives and five have been injured when they were hit by a vehicle on the Srinagar highway, in the Pakistani capital.
Officers have used tear gas to stop protests as demonstrators try to enter the capital. It is estimated that some 8,000 people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a stronghold of Khan and his formation, have clashed with riot police on the outskirts of Islamabad.
However, the capital remains closed precisely to prevent the entry of Jan’s followers, who threaten to liberate him by force. The march began on Sunday and left Peshawar, located about 50 kilometers from Islamabad.
Jan has been in jail since August 2023 and faces trial for alleged incitement to violence in connection with the incidents in May 2023, when his supporters stormed military installations following Jan’s arrest.