ISLAMABAD: At least six people, including four paramilitary soldiers, were killed on Tuesday during clashes near Pakistan’s parliament between security forces and protesters who are demanding the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif blamed the protesters for the soldiers’ deaths, accusing them of ramming the paramilitary troops with a convoy of vehicles.

Zulfikar Bukhari, spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), said two protesters had also been killed and 30 injured in the clashes, the worst political violence seen in months in the South Asian nation of 241 million people. One of the protesters was shot dead and the other was run over by a vehicle, Bukhari said.

“It is not a peaceful protest. It is extremism,” Sharif said in a statement, aimed at achieving “evil political designs”. Sharif said the violence was driving the law enforcement agencies to the “limits of restraint”. Amnesty International said the government must fully protect the rights of protesters and immediately rescind “shoot-on-sight” orders that it said gave undue and excessive powers to the military.

In a post on X from jail, Khan, 72, said his message to his supporters was to fight till the end, telling more people to join crowds attempting to occupy a public square in the city’s government enclave. “Those who haven’t yet joined the protest must also head to D-Chowk,” said Khan’s message posted on social media and shared by his party. “We will not back down until our demands are met,” he said, accusing security forces of firing on peaceful party workers. “All protesting Pakistanis stay peaceful, united and stand firm until our demands are met - this is the struggle for Pakistan’s survival and true freedom”, he said.

The violence erupted at the end of a march led by Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi and his key aide Ali Amin Gandapur that arrived in Islamabad early on Tuesday. Reuters reporters saw some of the marchers ransack vehicles and set a police kiosk on fire. They also attacked and wounded journalists at two separate locations, people from two media houses told Reuters.

The interior ministry said the army had been deployed to protect diplomatic missions in the fortified red zone area where government buildings and embassies are located. Authorities have said a curfew could be imposed in the capital. PTI rejected Sharif’s accusation that the paramilitary troops had been rammed, and it reiterated that party supporters would hold a sit-in outside the parliament until their demands were met.

The protest march, which Khan has described as the “final call”, is one of many his party has held to seek his release since he was jailed in August last year. PTI supporters last marched on Islamabad in October, sparking days of clashes with police in which one officer was killed, but this week’s protest is bigger in size and more violent, authorities said.

They said the protesters were now armed with steel rods, slingshots and sticks and were setting fire to trees and grass as they marched. Reuters witnesses heard firing around the protests, although it was not clear who was responsible. “This is not our government, this government is made up of traitors,” protester Abdul Rashid told AFP, his face covered by a thick scarf. “Long live Imran Khan.”

“The state’s response is completely unwarranted and disproportionate. We have the right to protest,” PTI lawmaker Waqas Akram told AFP by phone. “They treat their own people as enemies,” he said. PTI has also called for a rollback of constitutional amendments it says the government made to handcuff the judiciary, which has questioned the legitimacy of several cases against Khan. The turmoil has rattled investors. Pakistan’s benchmark share index closed down a record 3.57 percent on Tuesday.

Sharif’s government has come under increasing criticism for deploying heavy-handed measures to quash PTI’s protests. “It speaks of a siege mentality on the part of the government and establishment — a state in which they see themselves in constant danger and fearful all the time of being overwhelmed by opponents,” read one opinion piece in the English-language Dawn newspaper published Monday. “This urges them to take strong-arm measures, not occasionally but incessantly.”

Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, said the intensity of the latest protests underscored Khan’s strong hold over his large base. “A political solution, one with negotiations and concessions, is the only way out of this crisis,” he said. “oBut this is an especially bitter and personal confrontation between two sides taking maximalist positions on everything.”

Voted out of power by parliament in 2022 after he fell out with Pakistan’s powerful military, Khan faces charges ranging from corruption to instigation of violence, all of which he and his party deny. Candidates backed by Khan’s party won the most seats in a parliamentary election in February, but a coalition cobbled together and led by Sharif took power. Khan and the PTI say the polls were rigged following a military-backed crackdown to keep him out of power. The army has denied charges of election manipulation. – Agencies