Islamabad: The government has sought Pakistan army’s help after police and civil administration failed to bar the angry students, protesting against the US-made anti-Islam film, from entering Red Zone.
The charged participants clashed with the police that used tear gas and resorted to aerial firing to disperse them and kept them away from the Diplomatic Enclave in the federal capital on Thursday.
At least nine policemen, including the Station House Officer were injured during their efforts to cope with the situation. The protesters set ablaze check-posts of police and Rangers.
The charged protesters, belonging from cross section of society entered the city from Rawalpindi and were seen roaming freely on Constitutional Avenue, where the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Parliament House, the Prime Minister House and the other significant government buildings are located.
The demonstrators turned violent and hurled stoned, breaking windowpanes of a five star hotel in Islamabad.
Some private television channels said that some 350000 were rallying in the federal capital.
The participants were chanting slogans against the US. The protest turned violent and a large number of people from the adjacent areas joined it, witnessing the scenes on TV channels, after police baton charged the participants.
Meanwhile, the US has asks its citizens to avoid from traveling to Pakistan.
According to French news wire service AFP ” There were more rallies against the film elsewhere in Pakistan on Thursday, the largest of which was in the eastern city of Lahore, where a boisterous crowd of around 4,000 staged a peaceful gathering.”
Other smaller protests were seen in Karachi, the central city of Multan, the southwestern border town of Chaman and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Larger gatherings are expected on Friday, which the government has declared a national holiday and “day of love for the prophet” as a mark of solidarity with fellow Muslims angered by the film.
Many political and religious groups have called for people to take to the streets, and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira called for restraint.
“I appeal to the people to remain peaceful tomorrow as any violent protest will harm the country,” Kaira said.
“Indulgence in violence will not convey any positive message abroad.”
In Quetta, the capital of the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan, some 2,000 students paraded on the main airport road before gathering outside the Quetta Press Club where they burnt US and Israeli flags.
Elsewhere in Baluchistan, around 100 Christians — who are a tiny minority in Pakistan — denounced the film in their own protest in Chaman, where trucks supplying NATO troops cross into Afghanistan, while 2,500 Islamists later gathered in the town to chant anti-US slogans.
AFP also reported that the luxury hotel, much used by visiting Westerners, came under attack as a few demonstrators managed to enter the car park and damage vehicles, while others picked up tear gas shells fired by police and threw them into the Serena compound.
Doctor Razia Sultana of the Federal Government Services Hospital said at least 44 police and six civilians were hurt in the clashes, with the majority of injuries caused by stones and tear gas shells.
The Islamabad demonstration dispersed in the early evening, around five hours after it started, as government paramilitary helicopters hovered overhead.
Protester Rehan Ahmad explained the crowd’s fury.
“Islam is often ridiculed by America and the West and blasphemy is committed against our prophet in the name of freedom of expression,” he told AFP.
There was no mention at the protest of cartoons published on Wednesday by French magazine Charlie Hebdo caricaturing the prophet Mohammed, including two drawings showing him naked.
France has prepared for a backlash over the cartoons, saying it will close diplomatic missions, cultural centres and French schools in around 20 Muslim countries on Friday for fear of violent protests.
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