8 killed in Pakistan clashes, more PTI leaders arrested

PESHAWAR (Pajhwok): Eight people have been killed and nearly 300 others wounded in clashes between ex-premier Imran Khan’s supporters and security personnel across Pakistan.

More than 1,900 protesters were detained on Wednesday when more leaders of the Khan-led PTI party, including ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry and Asad Omar, were arrested for inciting violence.

Also on Wednesday, an Islamabad-based accountability court remanded the PTI chairman into the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for eight days in connection with the Al Qadir Trust case.

Police and PTI activists fought bloody pitched battles, which damaged to several government installations, including police stations, Radio Pakistan and the Swat Motorway.

Amid mounting chaos, the government called in the military in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad. Hours earlier, the corps commander’s residence in Lahore and the GHQ entrance in Rawalpindi were stormed.

At least 17 law-enforcement personnel were injured in clashes with protesters in Islamabad, where the office of a senior police officer was torched in Industrial Area.

Several police stations were attacked in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Quetta, several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and elsewhere in the country.

More than two dozen government vehicles were set alight while 14 government buildings were stormed by enraged protesters..

The killings occurred in Gujranwala, Lahore, Peshawar, Kohat and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where over 120 people were injured, police said.

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