Pakistani police fire teargas on Khan supporters
Pakistani police fired teargas, baton-charged crowds and detained supporters of ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday to stop them from reaching the capital Islamabad to demand fresh elections, officials and witnesses said. Clashes between Khan's supporters and police were reported in multiple cities. Khan, ousted in a confidence vote last month after losing his partners in his coalition, had urged supporters to march on Islamabad and stay there until the new government is dissolved and a date for a fresh election is announced. Islamabad's entry and exit routes, as well as important civic sites, have been blocked officials said. Entry and exit points were also blocked to and from all major cities in Punjab province and on the Grand Trunk Road (GTR). "No blockade can stop us," Khan said from atop a truck on the GT road on his way to Islamabad from the northwestern city of Peshawar.  "We will remain in Islamabad till announcement of dates for dissolution of assemblies & elections are given," he later tweeted. Khan's supporters also clashed with security forces in other major cities, including the southern port city of Karachi and the eastern city of Lahore. A mob torched a prison van in Karachi after clashing with police, and another group of protesters set fire to several trees along a main thoroughfare in Islamabad, officials said. The political violence has compounded uncertainty in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation ahead of a likely announcement by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) later in the day on whether it will resume a $6 billion rescue package. With falling foreign reserves, a fast-crashing rupee, and double-digit inflation, Pakistan's new government is struggling to stop a downward economic spiral. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his government was trying to clear up an economic mess that he blamed Khan for. "You've handed over a sinking economy to us, and now you're planning sit-ins and protest," Sharif said in Islamabad. "We are trying to energise this weak economy." (Reuters)