Hundreds of protesters trying to topple Pakistan’s govt stormed the state broadcaster on Monday, intensifying the political crisis gripping the nuclear-armed nation. Transmissions of the main Pakistani Television (PTV) news channel were cut for around half an hour before security forces cleared demonstrators from Islamabad’s high-security ‘red zone’.
The brief seizing of PTV by protesters armed with clubs came after fresh street clashes in which cops were pelted with rocks and responded with teargas. The army called for a peaceful settlement of the political crisis that has shaken Pak and weakened the govt of PM Nawaz Sharif. Opposition groups marched to the capital on 15 Aug to try to oust Sharif over alleged election fraud, triggering a crisis that has raised the spectre of military intervention in a country ruled for half its history by the army.
The brief seizing of PTV by protesters armed with clubs came after fresh street clashes in which cops were pelted with rocks and responded with teargas. The army called for a peaceful settlement of the political crisis that has shaken Pak and weakened the govt of PM Nawaz Sharif. Opposition groups marched to the capital on 15 Aug to try to oust Sharif over alleged election fraud, triggering a crisis that has raised the spectre of military intervention in a country ruled for half its history by the army.