At least six people, including four paramilitary soldiers, were reportedly killed in violent clashes in Pakistan's Islamabad between supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan and security forces, according to Reuters.
Khan's supporters were staging protests to demand the release of the former PM from jail.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif blamed the protesters for the death of the soldiers, alleging that they rammed vehicles into the security forces.
"It is not a peaceful protest. It is extremism," Sharif said in a statement, adding that the protests were aimed at achieving "evil political designs".
Such violence at the protests was pushing the law-enforcement agencies to the "limits of restraint", the Pakistani PM added.
A spokesperson for Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Zulfikar Bukhari, said that two protesters were also killed in the clashes while 30 others were injured.
Bukhari reportedly said that one of the protesters was shot dead and the other was run over by a vehicle. However, HT couldn't independently verify this information.
Amnesty International, a human rights NGO, said that Sharif's government must fully protect the rights of protesters and immediately take back the "shoot on sight" orders that it issued amid the rising tensions in the capital city.
The NGO said that the shoot-on-sight orders gave undue and excessive authority to Pakistan's military.
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