PTI Supporters Clash with Police Across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Five Injured and 50 Detained as Bara NADRA Centre Is Set Ablaze

Peshawar: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa slid deeper into confrontation on Tuesday as supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan clashed with police across the province. PTI officials said police fired tear gas and live rounds at the protesters. Five people were injured before the crowds were pushed back.

The worst of it in Bara

The most serious clashes were reported in Bara, a town roughly 15 kilometres from Peshawar. Police said 50 people had been detained and would face terrorism and sabotage charges, accused of damaging government property and disturbing law and order. One police official, speaking anonymously, said protesters set fire to the local NADRA registration centre. The PTI tells it differently. Its information secretary, Ikram Khatana, said the blaze was started by unidentified people who also stormed nearby offices — a claim the police version does not accept, and one that remained impossible to verify independently on Tuesday evening.

A province under emergency rule

None of this came out of nowhere. On Sunday the federal government imposed emergency rule in the province, suspending the PTI government and taking direct control, citing a surge in militant violence. The PTI calls that a pretext for a political takeover. Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and several of his ministers are in custody, and Khan’s sisters and hundreds of party workers have also been detained. Talks between Islamabad and the PTI broke down after the party refused a government condition — a public condemnation of militancy — for permission to march on the capital. Tuesday’s clashes suggest the standoff has now moved from meeting rooms to the streets.