Pakistan ends lockdown of its capital after dispersing Imran Khan supporters

Paramilitary infantrymen stand guard alongside roadside to verify safety in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday.

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ISLAMABAD — Government reopened roads linking Pakistan’s capital with the remainder of the rustic, finishing a four-day lockdown, on Wednesday after the use of tear gasoline and firing into the air to disperse supporters of imprisoned former Top Minister Imran Khan who marched to Islamabad to call for his free up 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 were dispersed,” Inside Minister Mohsin Naqvi mentioned. Khan’s spouse, Bushra Bibi, who was once main the protest, and different demonstrators fled in cars when police driven again towards the rallygoers following clashes through which a minimum of seven folks 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 cops take away a broken car left in the back of through supporters of imprisoned former Top Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf celebration, when safety forces introduced an operation Tuesday evening to disperse them, in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday.

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The police operation got here hours after hundreds of Khan supporters, defying govt warnings, broke thru a barrier of delivery packing 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 high minister started a “lengthy march” from the restive northwest to call for his free up. Khan has been in a jail for over a 12 months and faces greater than 150 prison circumstances that his celebration says are politically motivated. Loads of demonstrators were 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 celebration fled to Mansehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the place the celebration nonetheless laws. Khan, who stays a well-liked opposition determine, was once ousted in 2022 thru a no-confidence vote in Parliament.