Violent protests across Pakistan over the killing of Iran’s supreme leader have left at least 25 people dead, with clashes reported at US diplomatic compounds.
KARACHI: At least 25 people have been killed in violent protests across Pakistan over the weekend following the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
Demonstrations erupted in several major cities, including the southern megacity of Karachi where protesters attempted to storm American diplomatic buildings.
An AFP journalist witnessed hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters trying to enter the United States consulate, prompting clashes with police.
The office of the Karachi police surgeon reported at least 10 deaths and over 70 injuries, while a hospital toll seen by AFP listed nine people as having died from gunshot wounds.
In Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, officials said at least 13 people were killed in clashes between protesters and police.
A rescue official said seven people were killed in Gilgit, while a doctor told AFP six others died in Skardu.
Authorities have imposed a late-night curfew until Wednesday in Gilgit and Skardu, where the army has been deployed on the streets.
Two more people were killed as thousands gathered in the streets of the capital, Islamabad, many holding photos of the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
AFP journalists saw police firing tear gas to disperse crowds near the diplomatic enclave housing the US embassy on Sunday afternoon.
Israel and the United States launched their military operations on Iran early Saturday, quickly killing the long-ruling supreme leader and prompting outrage in neighbouring Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday evening that the killing of Khamenei was a “violation” of international law.
“It is an age old convention that the Heads of State/Government should not be targeted,” Sharif wrote on X.
The “people of Pakistan join the people of Iran in their hour of grief and sorrow and extend the most sincere condolences on the martyrdom” of Khamenei, he added.
At Sunday’s Karachi protest, people chanted slogans against the United States, Israel and their allies.
“We don’t need anything in Pakistan that is linked with the US,” a protester, Sabir Hussain, told AFP.
Earlier a crowd of young people climbed over the main gate and gained access to the driveway of the consular building, smashing some windows.
Police fired tear gas at the protesters, who dispersed, the AFP journalist saw.
The embassies of the United States and Britain both urged citizens in Pakistan to be cautious in the country.
