Authorities have reopened roads linking Pakistan’s capital with the rest of the country, ending a four-day lockdown, after using tear gas to disperse supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said: “All roads are being reopened, and the demonstrators have been dispersed.”
Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, who was leading the protest, and other demonstrators fled in vehicles when police pushed back against the rallygoers following clashes in Islamabad in which at least seven people were killed.
The police operation came hours after thousands of Khan supporters, defying government warnings, broke through a barrier of shipping containers blocking off Islamabad and entered a high-security zone, where they clashed with security forces.
Tension has been high in Islamabad since Sunday when supporters of the former prime minister began a “long march” from the unsettled north-west to demand his release.
Khan has been in a prison for more than a year and faces more than 150 criminal cases that his party says are politically motivated.
Hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested since Sunday.
Ms Bibi and leaders of her husband’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party fled to Mansehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the party still rules.
Khan, who remains a popular opposition figure, was ousted in 2022 through a no-confidence vote in Parliament.
