RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi was … calm and normal today [March 24] after yesterday’s ugly incidents in which according to official figures, seven persons were killed, and 75 taken to the two official hospitals, several of them with serious injuries. Two of the injured persons died … today, raising the official figure of dead to nine.

At least 13 buses and one motor car were … burnt during the trouble, which followed clas­hes between the workers of the ruling party and the volunteers of the eight Opposition parties forming the United Democratic Front (UDF) at the Liaquat Bagh where the Oppo­sition had arranged to hold a public meeting. … This was the ugliest scene that I have seen in this area since 1947, when the Hindus and the Muslims clashed against each other. …

Thousands of shots were fired, and the whole vicinity of Liaquat Bagh reverberated with explosions which continued for almost three hours. … While an official handout accused the Opposition parties, specially the NAP and Pakhtoon Zalme, of having caused the trouble, the Opposition spokesmen held the PPP workers responsible for it. The house of a local Muslim League leader … was also stoned. — Special Representative

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2023