Clashes as PTI activists bear down on capital

15 protesters injured, eight vehicles torched as Khattak vows to reach Bani Gala

SWABI/ HAROONABAD: Police in riot gear fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of PTI supporters heading for Islamabad on the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway which administration had blocked with shipping containers, concrete slabs and piles of mud.

The PTI activists threw rocks and bricks at the riot police as they charged forward in an attempt to remove the roadblocks.



At least 15 people were wounded in sporadic skirmishes between PTI workers and law enforcers — police and Frontier Constabulary —that continued throughout the day on Haroonabad bridge as helicopters flew overhead for aerial surveillance.

As dusk fell, the law enforcers fell back, allowing PTI workers to remove roadblocks with the help of cranes and excavators they had brought along and travel towards the federal capital where their party is scheduled to stage a dharna on Nov 2. Incensed marchers reportedly set at least seven police vehicles on fire to vent their anger.

Provincial government spokesperson Mushtaq Ghani, who was among the marchers, said that 15 PTI activists were wounded in skirmishes on Haroonabad bridge, located in Swabi district on the confluence of borders between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.



The standoff started on Monday morning when hundreds of stick-wielding PTI workers, led by the leaders of the party’s provincial chapter, reached the bridge where they were challenged by riot police and Frontier Constabulary personnel.

As they faced off, riot police fired tear gas canisters filling the area with clouds of white powder. The crowd retreated with tears and mucus flowing from reddened faces. Some of them coughed and rubbed their eyes maddeningly, while others climbed down the fences of the motorway in panic. Some daring PTI workers threw smoke-emitting canisters back at the riot police, forcing them to run for water to soothe the burning sensation.

The confrontation continued throughout the day. And as the dusk fell, the law enforcers retreated, allowing the PTI workers to remove the roadblocks with the help of cranes and excavators. Provincial Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who was leading the PTI workers, remained seated in his SUV throughout the standoff. “We have given a word to Imran Khan that we will reach Islamabad. And we will reach there, come what may,” said Muhammad Imran, a PTI activist from Nowshera, the hometown of Khattak.

After removing the roadblocks, cheering PTI workers boarded their vehicles and set off for their journey to the capital. However, at the Burhan Interchange their march came to a halt again as the Motorway was blocked with shipping containers and concrete blocks. Khattak climbed onto a truck, which was modified into a moving stage, to buck up the marchers.

Earlier, PTI activists from across K-P had started gathering at a ‘base camp’ on the Motorway in Swabi since morning. Most of them were from Peshawar, Swabi, Nowshera, Mardan, Malakand and Kohat districts. The party’s top provincial leadership was present there. In his pre-departure speech, a defiant Khattak vowed to lead PTI supporters to Bani Gala, the residence of party Chairman Imran Khan, at any cost.

After the teargas shelling on Haroonabad, Khattak castigated the federal government for using ‘inhumane force’ against peaceful marchers. “We are not afraid of arrests and we will reach Islamabad and break the siege laid around Bani Gala by police and Frontier Constabulary,” he said. “It’s a shameful act of the government to cut off K-P from the rest of the country,” he added. “We are being treated like an enemy in our own country.”



The chief minister said that his party’s struggle would not die down until the clique of corrupt ruling elite was ousted from power. “The PML-N government is resorting to torture and aggression to hide its corruption.”

Convoys of PTI activists have also set off from other major cities of the country, including Karachi, Lahore, Multan and even from Balochistan. Hundreds of PTI workers from across the country have been detained including in the capital, where a ban on protests was invoked last week. The Islamabad High Court on Monday partly lifted the order, saying the opposition had the right to demonstrate but could not disrupt citizens’ daily lives.

Authorities in Punjab have also closed the Lahore-Rawalpindi  Motorway using shipping containers, as police and paramilitary forces stand guard around the highway.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2016.