ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters flooded the centre of Pakistan’s capital yesterday, vowing to stay in the streets until Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigns.
The numbers were far below what protest organisers expected, but the protesters’ paralysis of the central business district is presenting the 15-month-old civilian government with its biggest challenge yet.
The unrest raises questions about Pakistan’s stability at a time when the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million is waging an offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants and the influence of anti-Western and sectarian groups is growing.
Riot police cordoned off two streets in downtown Islamabad with shipping containers and barbed wire for the protests. Police estimated the numbers at about 60,000 for both marches combined, although Reuters reporters saw fewer.
Protest organisers say they are peaceful but determined. “The prime minister and chief minister of Punjab should immediately resign and they should be sent to jail,” thundered populist cleric Tahir ul-Qadri after arriving in a convoy of black Toyotas, their tinted windows speckled with rose petals.
