Police fought running battles with stone-throwing anti-government protesters yesterday after authorities tried to detain opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, fanning a crisis that has alarmed the US.
Sharif is locked in a power struggle with the Pakistani president that threatens to paralyze politics in the nuclear-armed country and dilute its focus on tackling economic woes as well as Taliban militants operating along the Afghan border.
Hundreds of police surrounded the former prime minister’s residence in the eastern city of Lahore before dawn and detained him along with scores of his supporters, a party spokesman said.
PHOTO: AFP
Officers showed party officials an order placing Sharif and his politician brother, Shahbaz, under house arrest for three days, spokesman Pervaiz Rasheed said.
But Sharif later denounced the order as illegal and left the house in a convoy of vehicles packed with chanting, flag-waving supporters, headed for a downtown rally that had already turned violent.
“These are the decisive moments,” Sharif told supporters before climbing into a car. “I tell every Pakistani youth that this is not the time to stay home; Pakistan is calling you to come and save me.”
Rao Iftikhar, a senior government official, said authorities had decided to relax restrictions on Sharif so that he could address the rally and return home.
Lawyers and opposition party supporters had planned to gather near Lahore’s main court complex before heading toward Islamabad to stage a mass sit-in front of Parliament, in defiance of a ban.
To thwart them, authorities parked trucks across major roads on the edge of the city and riot police took up positions outside the railway station and government buildings.
Still, thousands of flag-waving demonstrators pushed past police barricades to reach the courts.
Protesters pelted some of the hundreds of riot police ringing the area with rocks, triggering running clashes. A reporter saw one officer led away with a head wound.
Police repeatedly fired tear gas, scattering the crowd, and beat several stragglers with batons, only for the demonstrators to return with fresh supplies or sticks and stones.
Mobs accompanying Sharif’s swelling convoy smashed the windows of buses parked along the route. Others set fire to tires, sending plumes of black smoke into the blue sky over a usually bustling boulevard littered with stones and empty tear gas shells.
Shahbaz Sharif and a host of other protest leaders went underground to dodge detention orders. Iftikhar said they included the head of Pakistan’s main Islamist party and cricketer star-turned-politician Imran Khan.
TV images showed police commandos wearing flak jackets and armed with assault rifles apparently searching for Shahbaz in Rawalpindi, just south of the capital.
Shahbaz, speaking to Geo TV by telephone, appealed to Pakistanis to come out onto the streets.
“[President Asif Ali] Zardari has put the nation into this deep crisis by breaking his promises,” he said. “These fascist tactics cannot stop the masses who want justice.”
Washington worries that the crisis is preventing the government from being an effective ally in the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan and is encouraging both sides to compromise.
Suspected militants attacked a transport terminal in northwestern Pakistan used to supply NATO troops in Afghanistan before dawn yesterday and torched dozens of containers and military vehicles, police said.
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: MOFA demanded Beijing stop its military intimidation and ‘irrational behavior’ that endanger peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region The Presidential Office yesterday called on China to stop all “provocative acts,” saying ongoing Chinese military activity in the nearby waters of Taiwan was a “blatant disruption” of the “status quo” of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Defense officials said they have detected Chinese ships since Monday, both off Taiwan and farther out along the first island chain. They described the formations as two walls designed to demonstrate that the waters belong to China. The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it had detected 53 military aircraft operating around the nation over the past 24 hours, as well
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
FORUM QUARREL: China’s TAO took unfriendly action against Taiwan with its ‘22 guidelines’ against ‘independence diehards’ and reporting system, the council said The government’s denial of permits for Shanghai Municipal Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Jin Mei (金梅) and nine Chinese journalists to attend the Twin-City Forum in Taipei next week were to protest against and express disapproval of China’s 22-point set of “guidelines” to penalize “diehard” Taiwanese independence separatists, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Beijing on June 21 unveiled the “22 guidelines” that allow its courts to try “Taiwan independence separatists” in absentia, with the death sentence applicable. The government must review permit applications based on the cross-strait situation, the MAC said. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office took unfriendly action against Taiwan
RSS