Exploding with Anger

Charged PTI protesters in KP block roads, chant slogans against the govt after attack on Imran Khan

PESHAWAR: The first major response to the gun attack on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in Wazirabad, Punjab province was witnessed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s provincial capital Peshawar, where hundreds of his diehard supporters staged a noisy protest in the heart of the city in less than four hours after the incident on Thursday.

The protestors were led by PTI provincial leaders, including ministers Taimur Saleem Jhagra and Kamran Khan Bangash who held their demonstration near the famous Suri Pul — one of the VIP neighbourhoods of Peshawar where a leading hotel, the city’s only golf course, the Provincial Assembly and a number of other high-profile government establishments are located.

PTI Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) Fazal-e-Ilahi and Insaf Youth central president Meena Khan Afridi were the notable leaders present when the charged protesters chanted slogans against the authorities as one protestor climbed on an armoured personnel carrier of the police outside the high-security area.

Similarly, acting-Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani led a large protest of PTI supporters in Abbottabad, while hundreds of angry but leaderless PTI workers took to roads in Mardan late in the evening and blocked the main roads and squares there.

In other similar developments, the important Indus Highway was blocked by protesters at different locations, including Kohat. Another important line of commuting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Peshawar-Dir-Chitral highway was also blocked at different locations in Dir Lower and Dir Upper by PTI supporters who spewed their anger against the attack on their party leader.

Disturbing scenes were witnessed in a PTI protest gathering in Bajaur district where Provincial Minister for Zakat, Usher, Social Welfare, Special Education and Women Empowerment Anwar Zeb Khan was seen brandishing an Automatic Kalashnikov (AK47), while threatening that he will lead a march on Islamabad with armed protesters.

Although Friday morning remained calm across the province ruled by the PTI, supporters of Imran Khan once started angry protests shortly after Friday prayers in different cities and towns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

PTI Member of the National Assembly (MNA) from Dir Lower, Bashir Khan led a protest to block the Malak Ahmad Baba interchange of the Swat Expressway at Chakdara, Dir Lower. It merits mentioning that the said interchange had remained impassable all day as the provincial government closed it in the morning to stop the conveys of Muttahida Qaumi Ittihad from Shangla, Swat, Dir and Chitral who wanted to participate in a gathering for peace in Swat and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at Anbaar interchange in Swabi on the M1 Peshawar-Islamabad motorway.

The closure of the Swat Expressway caused commuting problems for thousands of people, most of whom were forced to use a difficult and time-consuming unpaved mountainous road in Palai, Malakand.

A PTI protest at the Peshawar Toll Plaza of the M1 disabled all vehicles from utilizing the motorway towards Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi and several other towns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

Of all the protests on Friday, the one on Peshawar Toll Plaza was attended by former Federal Minister Murad Saeed. In his speech, Murad Saeed reiterated that the roads will remain blocked until further instructions by Imran Khan and until legal action was taken against the three persons, whom the PTI leader Asad Umar held responsible for the attack on Imran Khan.

However, like elsewhere in the province, the protesters at the Peshawar Toll Plaza were leaderless. A similar absence of PTI leadership was seen at protests in Charsadda, Mingora, Dir Upper, Chitral, Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Khyber district, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan.

In a separate development on Friday, MPA Fazal-e-Ilahi in a video clip was seen hurling insults towards the country’s leadership as well as threatening Federal Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan. The MPA vowed to avenge the attack on Imran Khan.

Protests by the PTI supporters will most probably continue in the coming days and weeks as the untiring youth following the charismatic Imran Khan puts their strength into the rallies across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and other parts of Pakistan. However, the noticeable absence of elected members and known faces of Imran Khan’s party gives a sense of how the leadership succeeds in evading trouble in the troubled hour.