By Pamela Constable and Shaiq Hussain
Protests erupted across Pakistan on Saturday after security forces in Islamabad launched an early-morning crackdown on thousands of religious demonstrators seeking to escalate pressure on the government.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd, which fought back with clubs and pelted police with stones from slingshots. Hundreds of injuries were reported among both protesters and security forces, with at least two people dead, according to accounts.
The protests flared over a previous proposed change in election laws — just a few words of text — that weakened the specific oath that all candidates for public office must repeat, swearing they believe that Muhammad was the prophet.
The government apologized for the “clerical error” several weeks ago, but the protest leaders have continued to push relentlessly for further action, especially the firing of Law Minister Zahid Hamid.
Some demonstrators Saturday expanded their outcry, calling for the entire government of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to step down.
Army officials urged the government to respond to the protests “peacefully,” saying that violent confrontation was “not in the national interest,” but police and civilian officials seemed overwhelmed by the day-long outpouring of unrest.
Demonstrators closed off highways, shut down sections of metropolitan Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore, and filled dozens of public squares and crossroads across Pakistan’s four provinces.
Officials blocked all television news channels at midafternoon, but information from scattered communities traveled by phone and text messages. Protesters attacked and injured a legislator from the ruling party and vandalized the home of the law minister Hamid.
In Faizabad, an interchange on the main highway between Islamabad and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi, clashes broke out near the site where religious groups had first gathered Nov. 8.
The original protests were spearheaded by a movement dedicated to defending the honor of Muhammad and the country’s strict laws against religious blasphemy. The group also reveres a man who assassinated a provincial governor in 2011 because the official had defended a Christian peasant woman accused of blaspheming Islam.
The leader of the protest movement, Maulvi Khadim Allama Hussain Rizvi, remained at the Faizabad site all day, wearing a gas mask and using a wheelchair because of a permanent disability. According to news reports, he chanted slogans praising the “finality of the prophet” and welcoming new protesters who arrived from mosques, shrines and homes to join the besieged rally.
Rizvi reportedly read out lists of towns and cities where crowds had blocked roads, adding “all praises to Allah.” Emotionally charged protesters chanted, “Long live the finality of the prophet.” The assault at Faizabad had been expected but was delayed for days, as religious leaders refused government orders to disperse and ignored repeated deadlines.
Despite the presence of thousands of security forces, protesters at Faizabad continued to resist or escape. By nightfall, crowds roamed the streets. Meanwhile, the reports of sympathetic rallies elsewhere spread, creating a growing sense of confrontation and loss of government control in some areas.
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