By Mushtaq Ali
PESHAWAR, March 2 (Reuters) – Pakistan sent the military into Himalayan Gilgit-Baltistan region on Monday and banned large gatherings nationwide after deadly protests against U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran spread, with 26 dead so far.
In the northern city of Skardu, in Shi’ite majority Gilgit-Baltistan, normally a tourist hotspot, protesters set fire to a U.N. office on Sunday with 14 people, including a soldier, killed in the ensuing clashes, local officials said. Two others died in the capital Islamabad.
Ten people were killed on Sunday in Karachi, where protesters stormed the U.S. consulate and breached the compound’s outer wall.
Thousands of people also protested in the northern cities of Parachinar, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar but no clashes were reported.
The Shi’ite community announced funeral processions for those killed in Gilgit-Baltistan, Karachi and Islamabad for Monday.
Pakistan is home to the world’s second-largest Shi’ite community after Iran. Many protesters said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the airstrikes, was like a spiritual leader for the community.
Ghulam Abbas, the Gilgit-Baltistan information minister, said authorities were calling in the military for three days and imposing “a three-day curfew in Gilgit and Skardu to maintain law and order”.
Roads leading to the U.S. consulate in Karachi were blocked off with a heavy police presence in the area. Similar measures were in place around U.S. missions in Lahore and Islamabad.
Shi’ite community leaders have called for more protests in the central city of Lahore and in Karachi despite the nationwide government ban on congregations and public gatherings.
“People were martyred, there were riots,” Karachi resident Dodo Chandio said. “Roads are blocked for the second day in Karachi, people are distressed.”
(Reporting by Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, and Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Writing by Mubasher Bukhari; Editing by Saad Sayeed and Alison Williams)
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