At least 17 people were killed in Pakistan during protests over the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, with crowds attempting to storm US diplomatic missions.
KARACHI: At least 17 people were killed across Pakistan on Sunday during widespread protests over the death of Iran’s supreme leader, with demonstrators attempting to storm US diplomatic buildings.
In Karachi, hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters tried to enter the US consulate, prompting clashes with police. The office of the Karachi police surgeon said at least 10 people had died and over 70 were injured by Sunday evening, with nine of the fatalities caused by gunshot wounds.
In the northern city of Gilgit, at least seven people were killed and many more injured in clashes with police, according to rescue official Zaheer Shah. Thousands also gathered in the streets of the capital Islamabad, where police deployed tear gas to disperse crowds near the US embassy.
The protests erupted after Israel and the United States launched a mass aerial campaign on Iran early Saturday, killing long-ruling supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has close ties with both Washington and Tehran, said the killing was a “violation” of international law.
“It is an age old convention that the Heads of State/Government should not be targeted,” Sharif wrote on social media platform X. He added that the “people of Pakistan join the people of Iran in their hour of grief and sorrow”.
At the Karachi protest, people chanted slogans against the United States, Israel and their allies. “We don’t need anything in Pakistan that is linked with the US,” protester Sabir Hussain told AFP.
A crowd of young people climbed over the main gate of the consular building, smashing some windows before police fired tear gas to disperse them. The embassies of the United States and Britain both urged their citizens in Pakistan to be cautious.
Around 4,000 people took to the streets in Islamabad, where AFP journalists heard overhead gunfire and saw tear gas deployed. “Our leader has been martyred, and we are not even allowed to protest,” said Zahra Mumtaz, a 52-year-old housewife from nearby Rawalpindi.
“Our leaders are nothing but stooges of the Americans… The Americans and Israelis will have to pay for this,” she told AFP. In the northern city of Skardu, protesters stormed and set fire to a United Nations office, causing black smoke to rise from the building.
At least three nearby vehicles were completely burned. Thousands of people also demonstrated in the eastern city of Lahore. Since the launch of the US-Israeli operations, Prime Minister Sharif has announced several calls with other regional leaders and urged restraint.
His statements have notably called the attacks on Iran an Israeli operation, excluding mention of the major US involvement.
The Sun Malaysia
