At least nine people were killed and about 25 others injured, several critically, after clashes outside the US consulate in Karachi, officials said. Angry crowds smashed windows as security forces used batons and tear gas to try to disperse the demonstrators.
The unrest followed reports that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had been killed in US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic. Reuters quoted Sukhdev Assardas Hemnani, a local government spokesman, saying consulate security personnel opened fire on protesters.
Sindh Province Interior Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar told local media authorities would act against anyone who tried to take the law into their own hands. “No one will be allowed to take the law into their hands,” he said.
In the capital, police closed all access roads to the Red Zone — the secured area that houses foreign embassies and government offices — as a precaution. The US Embassy in Islamabad said it was monitoring reports of demonstrations in Karachi and Lahore and noted calls for further protests at the US Embassy in Islamabad and the Consulate General in Peshawar.
Pakistan is home to one of the world’s largest Shiite Muslim communities, and the US-Israeli campaign has prompted protests in other countries as well. In Baghdad, Iraq, demonstrators tried to breach the fortified Green Zone to reach the US embassy; eyewitnesses described several hundred people clashing with security forces, who responded with batons, live ammunition, tear gas and water cannon.
In Quito, Ecuador, authorities said a convoy of attackers broke windows and assaulted worshippers at an Iranian cultural centre during Ramadan prayers, injuring one person and damaging the site. Videos shared on social media showed people outside the centre carrying Israeli, US and Iranian opposition flags. Police called the incident “an act of aggression.”