Pakistani security forces launched a massive operation late Tuesday to dislodge supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan who had stormed the capital Islamabad to demand his release.
Footage aired on multiple local broadcasters showed hundreds of protesters running in panic as riot police and paramilitary troops chased them amid teargas shelling.
Hundreds of protesters were also seen leaving the capital, although it was not clear whether they would return to protest on Wednesday morning.
Police hurled teargas and fired rubber bullets to regain control of several points, including “D-Chowk,” a large square which was the gathering site for protesters, and at one stage they managed to reach there in their hundreds.
Local broadcaster Geo News, citing unnamed security sources, reported that Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi and Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, managed to flee the capital and entered the province, which is governed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
According to the news channel, another 500 PTI workers were arrested in the last operation.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqavi in a late-night news conference at the D-roundabout near parliament alleged that the fleeing protesters ransacked and set public and private properties on fire, including metro stations and vehicles.
“Tomorrow will be a new day. Hopefully the situation will return to normal from tomorrow,” he said, announcing that all educational institutions will reopen in the capital from Thursday.
Naqvi said that Bibi and Gandapur are “absconding.”
Police said the operation will continue as hundreds of PTI workers are still hiding in Islamabad.