Pakistani police fire teargas, charge protesters in Karachi ahead of SCO summit

Pakistani police fired tear gas and swung batons at thousands of protesters on Sunday in Karachi after the demonstrators tried to break through a security barricade. Supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party hurled rocks at officers and torched a patrol car when police stopped them from reaching the press club.

The party said one of its members died in the violence. Police arrested around 20 people from both demonstrations.

The protests comes as foreign delegations began arriving in Pakistan on Sunday for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit with heightened security measures and military deployment in the capital to ensure law and order during the event.

Around 2,000 supporters of a far-right Islamist party tried to reach the city’s press club to oppose a another demonstration staged by civil society groups about the killing of a blasphemy suspect while he was in custody.

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Provincial Interior Minister Zia Ul Hassan said authorities feared clashes because both the political party and the civil society groups had issued calls for protests on the same day.

Ul Hassan condemned the violence, especially given an upcoming security summit in Islamabad and last week’s deadly attack on a convoy of Chinese nationals outside the city’s airport.

The TLP supports Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, which call for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.

In a statement, Islamabad Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Nasir Ali Rizvi said that a ”comprehensive” security plan had been chalked out ahead of the all-important summit in the federal capital.

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The police chief pointed out that more than 9,000 personnel of the police force have been deployed for security. “An integrated traffic plan has also been issued for the convenience of citizens.” The government already deployed army troops in the capital to tackle any untoward situation, while announcing a ban on all kinds of protests and rallies in Islamabad, neighbouring Rawalpindi and some other cities.

According to an official statement, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be among the senior regional government officials attending the event.

However, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party has threatened to hold a protest on October 15 against the restriction imposed on its jailed leader Imran Khan and demanded that the government allow him to meet his family, legal team and doctor.

With inputs from agencies.