LAHORE/KARACHI: Pakistani students and rights activists on Tuesday staged a demonstration outside the US Consulate in Lahore to protest the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the killing of a dozen protesters by the US Marines in Karachi.
A heavy contingent of police, including women personnel, was deployed outside the American Consulate to handle the demonstrators. Police have also placed containers on all routes leading to the consulate.
Protesters representing the Progressive Students and the 'Aurat March' chanted slogans against the US and Israel for attacking Iran and killing its supreme leader. "America ka jo yar hai, gaddar hai gaddar hai (Friend of America is a traitor)."
They also condemned the firing of US Marines on protesters outside the American Consulate in Karachi that resulted in the death of a dozen people.
The protesters demanded the immediate expulsion of the US ambassador from Pakistan.
They said the killing of the supreme leader is a loss for the entire Muslim Ummah. They said his only fault was refusing regime change in Iran.
The protesters also called for an immediate ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Over 20 people were killed during protests in Pakistan following the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Pakistan's Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) chief and opposition leader in the Senate, Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, claimed that at least 34 people were killed in the country during the clashes with law enforcers while protesting the assassination of the Iranian supreme leader.
"On Sunday in Karachi, 18 people were killed and more than 40 injured. In Islamabad, four people lost their lives and dozens were injured. In Skardu and Gilgit, six people were killed in each city, with dozens more injured. And in Lahore, dozens were also injured during the crackdown," Abbas said.
Lambasting the US Marines for the killing of 18 people in Karachi, the Senate opposition leader said: "The firing by personnel of the United States Marine Corps on unarmed demonstrators at Karachi US Consulate is condemnable in the strongest terms."
In Karachi, police released a video confession of a man it claimed to have arrested during the protests outside the US consulate in the port city, in which he confessed that some protesters were given weapons to open fire on the consulate.
In the confession released by Karachi police, the man who identifies himself as Daniyal Shah said that three other persons -- Bukhari, Ali and Shehzad -- were involved, and they were given instructions to join protesters and target the consulate security personnel and staff.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Sindh government, Sukhdev Assardas Hemnani, said “security” personnel had opened fire, without specifying their affiliation.
But an international wire service has quoted US sources as confirming that US Marines had fired on the protesters.
Sindh Home Minister Zia ul Hasan Lanjhar also confirmed that there was an exchange of fire between security forces and some protesters who had come with weapons and entered the consulate premises and opened fire there.
The two unnamed US officials also didn’t confirm whether the shots fired by US Marines had killed or struck any of the protesters.
But a reliable government source confirmed that after the situation started to get out of hand, the police had been reinforced with the addition of paramilitary rangers, and they had to open fire to control the situation.
“The protesters had turned very violent and some of them had weapons and were firing indiscriminately,” the source said.
In his video confession, Daniyal Shah is heard claiming that a person named Kamran had provided them with weapons and money, and he had acted on instructions from an alleged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf leader - a doctor based in the US.