KARACHI, Pakistan — Violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi and in the country’s north on Sunday left at least 22 people dead and more than 120 others injured as pro-Iran demonstrators attempted to storm the U.S. Consulate, authorities said.
In the north of the country, demonstrators also attacked United Nations and government offices.
The violence came after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Police and officials at a hospital in Karachi said that at least 50 people were also wounded in the clashes and some of them were in critical condition.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed his “profound sorrow over the martyrdom” of Khamenei and conveyed his condolences to Iran, according to his office. He said: “Pakistan stands with the Iranian nation in this moment of grief and shares in their loss.”
Summaiya Syed Tariq, a police surgeon at the city’s main government hospital, confirmed six bodies and multiple injured people were brought to the facility. However, she said the death toll rose to 10 after four critically wounded people died.
Twelve people were killed and more than 80 wounded in clashes with police in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region when thousands of Shiite protesters angered by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran attacked the offices of the United Nations Military Observer Group and the U.N. Development Programme, local police official Asghar Ali said.
A government spokesman, Shabir Mir, said all staffers working for those organizations were safe. He said protesters repeatedly clashed with police at various places in the region, damaged the offices of a local charity and set fire to police offices. Authorities deployed troops and brought the situation under control, he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan said in a post on X that it was monitoring reports of ongoing demonstrations at the U.S. Consulates General in Karachi and Lahore, as well as 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.
Consulate windows smashed
In Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province and Pakistan’s largest city, senior police official Irfan Baloch said that protesters briefly attacked the perimeter of the U.S. Consulate but were later dispersed.
He dismissed as baseless reports that any part of the consulate building was set on fire. But he said that protesters torched a nearby police post and smashed windows of the consulate before security forces arrived and regained control.
Witnesses said that dozens of Shiite protesters remained gathered about half a mile from the consulate, urging others to join them. They said one of the protesters had tried to burn a window of the consulate, before security forces arrived there and dispersed the demonstrators.
Appeal for calm
The clashes prompted Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to issue an appeal for calm.
“Following the martyrdom of Ayatollah Khamenei, every citizen of Pakistan shares in the grief of the people of Iran,” Naqvi said in a statement.
He described it as “a day of mourning for the Muslim Ummah and for the people of both Iran and Pakistan,” but urged people not to take the law into their own hands and to express their protests peacefully.
The provincial government of Sindh in a statement also urged citizens to express their views peacefully and warned against engaging in violence.
Protests in the area surrounding the U.S. Consulate in Karachi went on for hours, with dozens of Shiite youth, some covering their faces, throwing stones at law enforcement officials and vowing to reach the consulate, where hundreds of police and paramilitary Rangers have been deployed.
Security raised at U.S. Embassy and consulates
In Islamabad, police fired tear gas and swung batons as hundreds of Shiite protesters, angered by the killing of Khamenei, tried to march toward the U.S. Embassy. The clashes took place outside the Diplomatic Enclave, where the embassy is located, and additional police had been deployed.
Meanwhile, in the northwestern city of Peshawar, authorities used tear gas and batons to disperse thousands of demonstrators attempting to approach the U.S. Consulate to hold a rally to denounce the killing of the Iranian leader, police said.
Shiites also held a peaceful rally in Multan, a city in Punjab province, chanting slogans against Israel and the United States.
Mamoona Sherazi, who attended the rally, said that she was protesting Khamenei’s killing. She described him as a fatherly figure and a strong voice for Shiites, adding that he also supported Sunni Muslims facing oppression. “God willing, we will never bow before America and Israel,” she said.
Shiites also held a rally and clashes with police repeatedly near the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province, police said. Rallies against Israel and the United States were also planned in northern Gilgit-Baltistan region. Authorities said that the government has stepped up security around the U.S. Embassy in the capital, and consulates across the country to avoid any further violence.
Shiites make up roughly 15% of Pakistan’s population of about 250 million and represent one of the largest Shiite communities in the world. They have frequently staged anti-Israel and anti-U. S. rallies in the past, though clashes of this scale are rare.
Jawad and Ahmed write for the Associated Press and reported from Karachi and Islamabad, respectively. AP writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Babar Dogar in Lahore and Asim Tanveer in Multan contributed to this report.
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