Thousands of riot police sealed off Pakistan's capital Islamabad with barbed wire and shipping containers on the eve of the country's Independence Day, in a bid to foil mass protests aimed at toppling embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Two groups, led by cricket star turned opposition politician Imran Khan and fiery cleric Tahir ul-Qadri, plan to converge on Islamabad on Thursday intent on forcing Sharif to call an early election little more than a year after his landslide victory at the polls. This comes a day after a story about Khan being shot dead was circulated on social media, but it turned out to be a hoax.
Police said on Wednesday that they had detained some 2,100 followers of the two populist opposition figures in the past few days, and with all the obstacles in their path it was uncertain how many protesters would reach the capital.
Meanwhile, a Lahore court stopped Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman, and Qadri, the Pakistan Awami Tahreek, from holding the protest march and sit-in in "an unconstitutional way".
Tehreek-i-Insaf representative advocate Ahmed Awais told reporters that the party was not going to hold an "unconstitutional" protest march.
"Our march is within the ambit of the constitution of Pakistan. Therefore, it on the respected judge to interpret about the unconstitutional protest march," he said
After the court's verdict, Khan told a news channel that his party would hold the Azadi March come what may. "Our march is constitutional. The government's act to put containers to stop us from going to Islamabad is unconstitutional," he said.
