Chaos in Islamabad as security forces fire rubber bullets to disperse Islamist sit-in

Organised by a hardline group called Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan, the protests have rocked Islamabad in recent weeks. Saturday's crackdown has resulted in as many as 70 injuries.

Ongoing unrest in Islamabad reached a crescendo on Saturday morning when security forces fired rubber bullets - injuring 17 - to disperse an Islamist sit-in that has plunged Pakistan's capital city into chaos in recent weeks. Private TV channels have been told to go off air after many were accused of showing live coverage of security operations.

The protestors have been demanding that Pakistan's law minister Zahid Hamid resign over a hastily-abandoned amendment to the oath that election candidates must swear.

Close to 8,500 elite police and paramilitary troops were deployed to bring order after a sit-in was organised by a hardline group called Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan on November 6. A major highway has been blocked by the protestors leading to inconvenience for thousands of commuters.

Local media reports say several protestors on Saturday resorted to throwing stones at security personnel and it is this that may have triggered a retaliatory crackdown. 

The sit-in protest though had previously claimed one life when an ambulance carrying an eight-year-old boy could not reach the hospital due to the blockade.

While the group has stuck to its demand, the number of protestors are relatively small. However, there have been bigger ramifications for the political establishment and many say a delay in addressing the issue at hand has resulted in the situation now propelling out of control. According to a Geo TV report, the daily cost of deploying forces to contain the protest stands at 5 million Pakistani rupees.

The protest has also embarrassed the country as a whole because the highway where the sit-in has been organised is part of a vital road network around Pakistan's capital. The inability to either get the protestors to move, or to address their issues has meant that Islamabad has been held hostage by what many in the country regard as an insignificant group. 

(With AFP inputs)