Around 10,000 people protesting the execution of Mumtaz Qadri – a former Punjab police commando hanged last month for assassinating Punjab governor Salman Taseer – breached Islamabad's Red Zone Sunday evening.The government has called in the army to control the law and order situation.Protesters removed containers and blockades on the way to the Parliament House and also set some containers to fire before staging a sit-in outside the building, where fiery anti-government speeches are being delivered.
Earlier in the day, riot police used tear gas and batons to disperse the stone-pelting crowd from the high-security zone outside the parliament building.
More than 25,000 people had gathered in Rawalpindi's Liaquat Bagh early Sunday to participate in the chehlum of Qadri.
The crowd then turned towards the heavily-barricaded capital city, which was patrolled by hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers. Several major arteries leading to Islamabad were closed by authorities to block the crowd's route.
Earlier in the day, the protest was almost entirely ignored by the media, which has increasingly become subject to government-ordered news blackouts designed to prevent unrest from spiralling out of control.
Regulatory body Pemra cautioned channels against “jeopardising the National Action Plan” and said they should avoid coverage “driven by crass commercialisation like in India.”
Qadri was working as a bodyguard for Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer when he shot him 29 times in 2011 over the governor's call to reform the blasphemy law, which critics say is frequently misused to oppress religious minorities.
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where even unproven allegations can stir mob violence and lynchings.
Critics including European governments say the country's blasphemy laws are often misused to settle personal scores.
Mob attacks Karachi Press Club
Around 80 to 100 protesters belonging to a religious party, Anjuman Tulba Islam (ATI), attacked the Karachi Press Club (KPC) Sunday afternoon where they resorted to aerial firing, manhandled journalists and set a vehicle belonging to Jaag TV on fire, officials and eye witnesses said.
The ATI workers were protesting on the occasion of Mumtaz Qadri’schehlum, said Saddar Deputy Superintendent of Police Kunwar Asif.
The police officer claimed protesters carried pictures of Mumtaz Qadri and attacked a “few camera persons” at the Press Club over “lack of coverage of their event.”
“The protesters would be booked under the anti-terror act,” he said.
KPC secretary A.H. Khanzada, addressing an emergency meeting of journalists inside the premises, announced boycott of ATI and its mother organisation, Jamiat Ulema Pakistan, till their leaders seek an apology and compensate the damages.
The KPC secretary said a meeting of the Press Club’s governing body will be held Monday to deliberate the possibility of banning rallies outside the club.
ATI Karachi leader, Hissan Amini, however denied that his party workers were involved in the violence.
In a statement, he claimed ‘some unknown miscreants’ resorted to hooliganism at the KPC and beat media persons after their rally ended.
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