KARACHI/LAHORE/GILGIT/ISLAMABAD/DI KHAN
Ten people died in Karachi on Sunday, a hospital official said, after protesters clashed with law enforcement personnel near the US Consulate on Mai Kolachi Road, as protests erupted countrywide against the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
The protests followed the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Saturday’s coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes on Tehran. The situation warranted Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to issue an appeal, urging people to remain peaceful.
“Today is a sorrowful day for the entire Muslim ummah, Pakistan’s public and Iran’s public,” he said in a video statement.
Stating that every Pakistani citizen was as aggrieved as Iranians, Naqvi said, “My only request is that we all stand with you, but please do not take the law into your hands. You may protest but peacefully.”
Karachi clashes
Law enforcement personnel resorted to teargas shelling and baton-charge to control the situation at the US Consulate in Karachi.
According to a statement by Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed listing all casualties, eight bodies were brought to Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), while two succumbed to their injuries, taking the deaths in the US Consulate incident to 10.
A total of 62 people were injured near US Consulate, with 41 taken to CHK’S SMBBIT, seven taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), eight taken to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), and six taken to Fatimiyah Hospital.
Separately, eight persons injured during protests at Native Jetty and Numaish Chowrangi were brought to SMBBIT, while three wounded in a protest in Paposh Nagar were taken to JPMC.
This took the total number of people injured in protests across the metropolis to 73, Dr Syed’s statement said.
Out of them, 14 remained admitted in hospitals, while the rest were discharged after treatment, it added.
Of those admitted, six were in a critical condition — two at SMMBIT, two at AKUH and one at JPMC.
Dr Mohammad Sabir Memon, the executive director of Civil Hospital Karachi’s (CHK) SMBB Institute of Trauma, told Dawn that 9 had died and 34 were injured in the wake of protests near the consulate.
Dr Memon revised the death toll from 10 to nine, explaining that one deceased person was counted twice in the earlier figures.
Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed also confirmed to Dawn that nine people died as a result of the incident.
According to a list of casualties brought to CHK, the wounds to 34 injured and all the deceased resulted from “gunshots”.
Dr Syed said seven injured persons were each shifted to the Aga Khan University Hospital and the Fatimid Foundation, while the remaining were at CHK’s trauma centre.
