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Violent clashes erupted across Pakistan on Sunday as protesters demonstrated after the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and attempted to reach U.S. diplomatic missions, including a push to storm the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, authorities said. In several cities, protesters also attacked or targeted other offices, and police used tear gas and batons to disperse crowds.
In Karachi, clashes between protesters and security forces left at least 22 people dead and more than 120 others injured, according to police and hospital officials. Police said demonstrators supportive of the Iranian government tried to storm the consulate and that the fighting continued despite a heavy security presence.
Karachi hospital officials said wounded people were brought to the city’s main government hospital. Summaiya Syed Tariq, a police surgeon at the hospital, confirmed that six bodies and multiple injured people were initially brought in, and she said the death toll later rose to 10 after four critically wounded patients died.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, violence followed the same trigger and spread beyond the U.S. diplomatic enclave. Authorities said that in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, demonstrators attacked U.N. and government offices, including the U.N. Military Observer Group and the U.N. Development Programme, after thousands of protesters angered by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran moved against those facilities.
In Gilgit-Baltistan, local police official Asghar Ali said the clashes resulted in 12 deaths and more than 80 injuries. A government spokesman, Shabir Mir, said staff working for those U.N.-related organizations were safe, adding that protesters damaged offices of a local charity and set fire to police offices while clashing repeatedly with police in multiple locations before authorities brought the situation under control.
In Karachi, senior police official Irfan Baloch said protesters briefly attacked the perimeter of the U.S. Consulate and were later dispersed. He dismissed reports that part of the consulate building was set on fire, but he said protesters torched a nearby police post and smashed windows of the consulate before security forces arrived and regained control. Around the consulate, protests continued for hours, with dozens of youth throwing stones at law enforcement officials and vowing to reach the consulate, where hundreds of police and paramilitary officers had been deployed.
Pakistan’s government urged calm as the protests turned violent. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi called for calm in a statement after the killing of Khamenei, saying “Following the martyrdom of Ayatollah Khamenei, every citizen of Pakistan shares in the grief of the people of Iran,” while urging people not to take the law into their own hands and to express their protests peacefully. The Sindh provincial government also urged citizens to express their views peacefully and warned against engaging in violence.
In the capital Islamabad, police fired tear gas and used batons as hundreds of protesters tried to march toward the U.S. Embassy. Authorities said the clashes took place outside the city’s diplomatic enclave, where the embassy is located, and that additional police had been deployed. In the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said tear gas and batons were used to disperse thousands of demonstrators attempting to approach the U.S. Consulate to hold a rally and denounce the killing of the Iranian leader.
Protests also took place in other cities, including Multan and Lahore. In Multan, police said protesters held a peaceful rally where demonstrators chanted slogans against Israel and the United States; Mamoona Sherazi, who attended the rally, said she was protesting Khamenei’s killing and told reporters, “God willing, we will never bow before America and Israel.” In Lahore, police said protesters rallied and clashed with police near the U.S. Consulate; authorities said they had stepped up security around the U.S. Embassy and consulates to prevent further violence.
The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan said it was monitoring reports of ongoing demonstrations at the U.S. Consulates General in Karachi and Lahore and calls for additional protests at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and the consulate general in Peshawar. It advised U.S. citizens in Pakistan to monitor local news, stay aware of their surroundings, avoid large crowds and keep their travel registration with the U.S. government up to date.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed condolences after the death of Khamenei, saying in a message from his office that he was conveying “profound sorrow over the martyrdom” of the Iranian leader and saying “Pakistan stands with the Iranian nation in this moment of grief and shares in their loss.”