New peace bid after bloody clashes

Pakistan's government said on Sunday it is trying to reopen talks with opposition groups after bloody overnight clashes between police and protesters outside the prime minister's residence left two dead and hundreds injured.

By Sunday morning, sporadic clashes were continuing between police in riot gear and a few hundred protesters, as thousands more lay on the grass and slept.

Many protesters had come armed with batons and slingshots.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said that the government remained open to restarting negotiations to end the situation peacefully.

"The government did not initiate the clashes. The protesters turned violent and tried to enter sensitive government buildings, which are the symbol of the state," he told the private Geo News channel.

"They wanted their demands to be met at gunpoint, but still, our doors are open for talks."

At least 450 people were injured when clashes broke out between police and protesters after a 17-day peaceful sit-in in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad on Saturday night, media reported on Sunday.

Local TV channel Abb Takk said that 240 injured people, including six children and 40 women, were taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, while 210 others, including five children and 25 women, were taken to Polyclinic Hospital.

The injured also included more than 40 police and six journalists, the report said.

The clashes broke out when supporters of political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and prominent religious party Pakistan Awami Tehreek started marching toward the prime minister's house to stage a sit-in.

PAT chief Tahir ul Qadri claimed that seven of his party's workers were killed by the police and many others were injured by steel and rubber bullets.

PTI's chief Imran Khan said one worker was killed and scores of others injured in clashes.

However, federal Defense Minister Khawja Asif rejected the claims by the opposition leaders, saying no one was killed in the clashes.

Independent sources at hospitals confirmed two fatalities, including a woman.

The opposition leaders and local media reports said that clashes broke out when police fired tear gas shells at protesters marching in the capital's high-security Red Zone to stage a sit-in outside the prime minister's house.

Xinhua - AFP

(China Daily 09/01/2014 page12)