By Asif Shahzad and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam
ISLAMABAD - Security forces clashed with protesters near Pakistan's parliament on Tuesday as hundreds of supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan demanded his release in demonstrations the government said have killed four paramilitary troops.
A Reuters witness said hundreds of protesters reached D-Chowk in the capital Islamabad, a square near the country's legislature that has been a historic rallying point for protests.
The interior ministry said the army had been deployed to protect diplomatic missions in the fortified red zone area where many government buildings and embassies are located.
It added that a curfew could be imposed with paramilitary troops called in to block the marchers, whom the prime minister blamed for the deaths, saying the troops were run over by vehicles in a convoy of protesters.
"It is not a peaceful protest. It is extremism," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement, condemning the bloodshed as being aimed at achieving "evil political designs".
The interior ministry confirmed the killings, but did not say who was responsible.
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party has planned to hold a sit-in at D-Chowk until their demands are met.
The protesters were armed with steel rods, slingshots and sticks and were setting fire to trees and grass as they marched. Reuters witnesses heard firing around the protests though it was not clear who was responsible.
PTI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the government's accusations.
Thousands of Khan's supporters broke through security barriers on roads blocked with shipping containers as they responded to his call for a sit-in protest.
Calling for the government's resignation among other demands, the protesters ransacked vehicles and set a police kiosk on fire.
The protesters also attacked and wounded journalists at two separate locations, people from two media houses told Reuters.
The government met Khan's aides to try to calm the protests, but the attempt did not succeed, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said.
On Monday, a police officer was killed and dozens wounded in clashes as the protest approached Islamabad.
Khan's party has called for a rollback of constitutional amendments it says the government made to handcuff the judiciary, which has questioned the legitimacy of several cases against the 72-year-old.
Bushra Bibi, Khan's wife and a key aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, who is the chief minister of the PTI stronghold Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, led the march that wound its way into the capital early on Tuesday.
FINAL CALL
The protest march, which Khan has described as the "final call", is one of many his party had held to seek his release since he was jailed in August last year.
The party's most recent protest in Islamabad in October turned violent.
Voted out of power by parliament in 2022 after he fell out with Pakistan's powerful military, Khan faces charges ranging from corruption to instigation of violence, all of which he and his party deny.
The military, which plays an outsized role in politics, is the kingmaker in the South Asian nation of 241 million.
Candidates backed by Khan's party won the most seats in general elections in February, but a coalition cobbled together at the 11th hour and led by Sharif took power.
Khan and the PTI say the polls were rigged following a military-backed crackdown to keep him out of power. The army has denied charges of election manipulation.
Paramilitary troops and police in riot gear patrolled streets in Islamabad as authorities enforced a security lockdown over the last three days, barricading major roads with shipping containers.
Highways in the eastern part of Punjab province have also been blocked.
Pakistan's benchmark share index (.KSE), opens new tab was down more than 2% in intraday trading on Tuesday.
