ISLAMABAD — Pakistani police on Saturday charged with batons and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters marching toward the prime minister’s official residence and the adjacent parliament building in Islamabad, blanketing the route with clouds of white smoke and scattering demonstrators.
More than 100 people were injured in the clashes between police and demonstrators demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Scores of protesters, mainly women carrying hammers and iron rods, broke down a fence outside the parliament building, enabling hundreds of people to enter the lawns and parking area, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene and Pakistani TV reports.
Islamabad Police Chief Khalid Khattak said protesters were armed with hammers, wire cutters and axes. They even had a crane.
Defense Minister Khwaja Mohammad Asif said police later managed to clear most of the protesters from the parliament area. “Now only women and children are there,” he said, “and they can take shelter there as long as they want.”
Nearly 125 people — including women, children and police officers — were admitted to two government hospitals in the Pakistani capital, medics and police said. The injured had wounds from tear gas shells, batons and rubber bullets.
The protest leaders — cricket-legend-turned-politician Imran Khan and anti-government cleric Tahirul Qadri — had called on supporters staging a sit-in for days outside the parliament building to march on the prime minister’s residence and the legislative chamber.
