On 30th August I went to D Chowk in Islamabad to join the peaceful PTI protest. I was totally amazed to see so many Pakistanis, rich, poor, old, young, friends and families, all heading together to one location for a peaceful protest. I saw the crowd parking their cars and motorcycles kilometers away and walking together towards D Chowk.
The police were very helpful, managing traffic, helping the protesters, having friendly chats and even agreeing with the protesters. I saw a traffic policeman stopping a motorcyclist heading towards the protest who had besides the rider, his wife, his elderly mother and one kid. And instead of fining the driver, the police opened a closed road and told the rider to use this instead as it was safer for him and his family.
Even at the protest camp in D Chowk, I was amazed to see so many Pakistani’s gather at one small place. There was no pushing or shoving, people were respectful of women and children, no one was throwing rubbish and no one was being insulting. There were sellers selling food, water, flags, hats, banners, head bans and other items. Families with kids were walking among the crowd without any problem.
When Imran Khan announced that he will move the protest to PM House, he also told everyone many times that women and children should stay here or go home. He ordered everyone not to be violent or damage Pakistani property. He even asked the police officials not to attack as this was a peaceful protest. And Imran Khan told everyone that first of all he himself and his main members would move to the PM House, with the workers to follow when he had reached there, so that police don’t attack their current location as it had women and children.
During all this time I noticed that no police personnel was getting ready to fight them. They were all sitting around, having food, chatting with protesters or among themselves. The police personnel did not have any batons, shields or tear gas guns. Therefore I was surprised to see the attack on the protesters by the police half an hour later. Who were these attacking police? Which unit they belonged to? And why did they attack the protesters when they were clearly not being violent and contained a high number of children and women?
ENGR SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER
Peshawar