Police arrested nearly 1,000 supporters of Imran Khan as security forces cracked down on a massive protest in Islamabad demanding the release of the jailed former Pakistani prime minister, police said on November 27.
Islamabad police chief Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi told a news conference that 19 Afghan citizens were among the 954 protesters arrested by Pakistani security forces over the past three days.
The protesters, who had marched for days toward Islamabad from Khan's stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the northwest, were dispersed and the capital cleared during a sweeping midnight raid by Pakistani security forces.
Rizvi said police used only nonlethal means during the overnight raid.
Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party issued a statement on X on November 27 saying the protest, during which at least six people -- four members of the security forces and two protesters -- had been killed, was being suspended "for the time being" and accused the government of brutality.
PTI spokesman Sheikh Waqas Akram confirmed the suspension of the protest.
Party officials said Khan's wife, Bushra Bibi, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, a key Khan ally, had returned "safely" to the province from Islamabad following the security forces' crackdown.
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Khan Supporters Clash With Pakistan Security Forces Amid High Tensions In Islamabad
Naqvi told journalists in Islamabad at the late-night briefing that the protesters, some of whom were armed with sticks and slingshots, had been successfully dispersed after the Pakistani military deployed to the capital earlier on November 26.
He announced that schools would reopen on November 27 and all roads would be cleared.
The minister also said that details regarding the involvement of Afghan nationals in the protest would be shared with the media on November 27, adding that "an important decision has been taken about Afghan nationals," which would be announced in the next few days.
PTI claimed on X that the police in Islamabad fired directly at protesters. The capital had been locked down since late on November 23 and mobile Internet services were sporadically cut.
The Islamabad city administration last week announced a two-month ban on public gatherings, but convoys of Khan supporters traveled from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province on November 25 determined to enter the city.
PTI's chief demand is the release of Khan, who served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
The 72-year-old former cricket superstar-turned-politician has been in jail for more than a year and faces more than 150 criminal cases, although he enjoys huge popularity among Pakistanis. PTI has said the cases are politically motivated.
PTI has defied a government crackdown since Khan was barred from running in elections in February with regular demonstrations aiming to seize public spaces in Islamabad and other large cities.
Before the raids, security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Khan supporters after thousands defied roadblocks to march some 150 kilometers from the northwest toward Islamabad despite a lockdown and a ban on public gatherings.
The party is also protesting alleged tampering in the February polls and a recent government-backed constitutional amendment giving it more power over the courts, where Khan is tangled in dozens of cases.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government has come under increasing criticism for deploying heavy-handed measures to quash PTI's protests, which have largely cut off Islamabad from the rest of the country, with travel to other parts of Pakistan almost at a standstill.