LAHORE: Around Saturday midnight, Lahore’s Liberty Chowk descended into chaos. Protesters already sitting there began to turn disorderly as Islamabad’s clash made headlines. With ‘high death toll’ rumours circulating, PTI supporters began to move from confusion to anger.

What was meant to be a peaceful sit-in, turned into an unruly mob. The scenario presented the grim appearance of a fascist dystopia in the charged, tense night as Imran Khan’s supporters began to burn trash and tyres and chanted slogans brandishing clubs. Heavy smell of gasoline hung in the air. At a distance, next to the Pakistan Post Office, police silhouetted against the backlight. They stood stock-still and taut, batons and shields in hand, waiting for either orders, or for the mob to charge. A singular teargas shell had already been fired but the acrid gas had since some time diffused.

Towards 1:30am, families – including women and children - were told by fellow protesters to evacuate the place. One of them consistently claimed they had been protesting peacefully.

“We did not do a single thing, but the police fired teargas at us and now we are leaving in fear for our safety,” said a man who was navigating his family out of the fray. “It is advisable that no one should stay here,” he warned. He claimed there were about four or five sizeable protests all over the city, including at Charing Cross (The Mall) and DHA’s Lalik Chowk.

Considering the seriousness of Saturday night events in Islamabad, the impact, however, was not completely spontaneous in Lahore. There was at least a two to three hour gap after which the protesters began to express their outrage. But tempers caught on fast and the feeling within the crowd was heavy and infectious.

Protesters were divided into two or three groups. One of them, wielding batons chanted anti-Nawaz slogans and used abusive language against him. The other gathered in an aggressive mood in front of the well-known Bholi Juice shop, of which the prime minister happened to be a longtime patron. Within a matter of minutes, one of them had climbed up and torn off the billboard which showed faces of the Sharif brothers. A third ‘group’ stood aimlessly on the roundabout itself, making phone calls and talking to each other.

“I had to let them tear off the billboard,” said the Bholi guard who took the decision in a moment’s instant for damage control. “Tempers were soaring and in order to stop them from smashing lights and other things, I let them direct their anger towards this billboard which costs little and can be replaced easily,” he said.

Three or four shopkeepers and hawkers stood near the Liberty Parking Plaza dumfounded as happenings unfolded. “Ever since these protesters have come to do their so called peaceful sit-in here at Liberty, our businesses have suffered two fold. I used to make about Rs1,500 a day at my restaurant; now I make only half of that,” says one of them who owns a small eating place near Smart Hotel.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014