Pakistan seals off capital, blocks cellphones ahead of protest by Imran Khan’s party

Authorities in Pakistan sealed off the capital, Islamabad, and blocked cell phone services and products on Friday to prevent an anti-executive rally by supporters of jailed old college Prime Minister Imran Khan, officials said.

It’d be basically the most contemporary in a series of dispute rallies since closing month to press for Khan’s originate and agitate towards the ruling coalition executive, which the social gathering calls illegitimate, announcing it used to be shaped after a unsuitable election.

Transport containers were positioned to block Islamabad’s entry and exit parts, guarded by huge numbers of police and paramilitary troops, the officials said, while police banned any gathering in the capital.

“If somebody plans to storm Islamabad, we wouldn’t let that occur,” Internal Minister Mohsin Naqvi told a info convention unhurried on Thursday.

He urged Khan’s social gathering to shift the rally to later dates, to steer particular of disrupting Islamabad’s preparations to host a assembly of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) on 15 Oct and 16 Oct.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is visiting, to be adopted by a excessive-profile Saudi delegation and Chinese Premier Li Qiang sooner than the convention, Naqvi said, in conjunction with, “We can now not enable any chaos.”

Any agitation in the capital would now not ship a merely stamp to the enviornment sooner than the convention, Naqvi said.

Disregarding the enchantment, Khan requested his supporters to fetch outdoors parliament without reference to boundaries.

“I need you all to reach D-Chowk nowadays for a unexcited dispute rally,” he posted on X on Friday, relating to a put outdoors parliament. “This war has entered a decisive part.”

Even supposing Khan has been in jail since Aug 2023, candidates backed by him obtained basically the most seats in February’s frequent election, even supposing their numbers were insufficient to make a executive.

His opponents, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, shaped a coalition executive in its set up.

In a assertion on Friday, Islamabad police warned they would rob disappear towards anyone attempting to disturb the peace in the capital, in conjunction with that any gathering had been banned.

Colleges were shut and cell phone services and products suspended in Islamabad and the adjoining garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi.

A telecoms official said cell phone services and products were blocked on directions from the interior ministry. A ministry spokesman didn’t answer to a requirement for a comment.