bins and internet blocks to stop Imran Khan supporters

In recent days, the government has detained thousands of people and blocked connections. Members of the former prime minister’s party, led by Imran Khan’s wife and the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, arrived in the center of the capital today and clashed with security forces. There are already six victims.

Islamabad (/Agencies) – Protests in support of former Prime Minister Imran Khan have led to clashes between police and protesters: at least six people have died so far, including four security force officers who were run over. by a convoy of protesters, as announced by the office of the current prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif. This is not a peaceful protest. “It is extremism,” the prime minister added, condemning the bloodshed and accusing the protesters of having “evil political designs.”

Security forces have set up a series of containers around the center of the capital, Islamabad, to prevent protesters from reaching Parliament, and the government today threatened to also deploy the army. In recent days, 4,000 people had already been detained and connections blocked before the march began, while today the security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets, shooting from the top of the containers in an attempt to disperse to the crowd.

Pakistan has been in turmoil since Imran Khan was impeached by Parliament in April 2022 after falling out of favor with the military, which continues to control the national political landscape after decades of military dictatorship. Although Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Justice Movement (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI), actually won the elections in February this year, the country’s two best-known political parties, the Muslim League of Pakistan (PML) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), have allied themselves to remain in government, relegating the PTI to the opposition. For more than a year, Imran Khan has been in prison, accused in more than 150 different cases on charges that his supporters say are fictitious.

Despite his arrest, Imran Khan continues to agitate his voter base through social media. In recent days, the 72-year-old former prime minister (a cricket star in his youth) had called on his supporters to gather in Islamabad for a sit-in protest, led by his wife, Bushra Bibi, and the province’s governor. from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, a member of the PTI and a close associate of Khan.

In recent days, Gandapur had announced that it would take the protest to Islamabad’s D-Chowk: this is a central area that houses the main government institutions and where Khan had already held other protests in 2014. “We will not leave until Imran “Khan orders us,” Gandapur said today, waving the PTI flag from a convoy. Pakistani authorities had placed the capital under security measures to prevent protesters from reaching the city center as early as Sunday, November 24, after the PTI announced the sit-in.

Among the party’s demands is the revocation of constitutional amendments approved last month that allow Parliament to appoint the president of the Supreme Court, previously elected based on seniority. In recent years, the court had repeatedly ruled in favor of Khan’s release.

Since tensions began about four days ago, the government has suspended Internet connections, while some social platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) have been blocked for months. However, thanks to VPNs (a system that allows you to circumvent Internet blocks imposed by the authorities by changing the geolocation), journalists, activists and citizens continue to access the platform, considered essential to obtain information, although with increasing difficulties.

In recent days, the Council of Islamic Ideology of Pakistan had declared the use of VPNs against Islam, a measure that many believe serves to support the repressive decisions of the government, which would like to prevent its use, as is the case in Russia or China. An independent site noted that yesterday, November 25, VPN demand in Pakistan increased by 102% compared to the daily average recorded in the previous 28 days. Today, searches have peaked at 213%. Pakistan’s government has been using Chinese technologies these days to test a national “firewall” that, according to the executive, is used to suppress online crimes, but for opponents the purpose is to monitor online traffic and apply greater repression .