By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Clashes broke out between police and protesters outside the US consulate in Karachi on Sunday, with at least five people injured as demonstrators reacted to the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes the previous day.
The protesters gathered near the consulate on Mai Kolachi Road, with some reports placing the initial assembly on the adjacent MT Khan Road area. They attempted to enter the premises and pelted stones at the building. Law enforcement personnel responded with teargas shelling and baton charges to control the situation, according to the Edhi rescue service.
An Edhi ambulance took the injured to Civil Hospital Karachi. Rescue officials confirmed that at least five people were hurt in the confrontations and shifted to nearby hospitals for treatment. Law enforcement agencies, including police and Rangers, intensified security in the area to prevent further violence and ensure public safety.
Sindh home minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar sought immediate details about the situation from Karachi additional inspector general of police Azad Khan. “No one will be allowed to take the law into their hands,” Lanjar was quoted as saying. He ordered that the security of sensitive installations be strengthened, that alternative routes be determined to maintain the flow of traffic, and that law enforcement agencies remain fully alert and monitor the situation closely. “Action will be taken in accordance with the law against elements disturbing law and order,” he warned.
Traffic movement in the area was severely disrupted. In an update issued at around 11am, Karachi traffic police said both sides of the road from Sultanabad traffic section towards Mai Kolachi were closed for traffic due to the protest. Vehicles coming from Jinnah Bridge were being sent towards I.I. Chundrigar Road, those from Boat Basin were being given U-turns at Mai Kolachi Phatak and sent back, and vehicles from PIDC were being turned back from Park Cut. The traffic police urged the public to call the traffic helpline 1915 for alternative routes to avoid inconvenience. “Traffic police are present and managing the flow of traffic,” it added.
The protests were not limited to the consulate area. Angry demonstrators gathered in several parts of Karachi, including Numaish Chowrangi, Abbas Town and Tower. Crowds marched through the streets chanting slogans condemning the reported killing of the Iranian leader. Eyewitnesses said the demonstrators later moved toward the US consulate, where security had been tightened in anticipation of unrest. Some participants reportedly hurled stones at the building, while there were unconfirmed reports of gunfire in the vicinity and attempts to vandalise property.
The unrest in Karachi follows confirmation by Iranian state media early on Sunday that Khamenei, 86, had been assassinated in a major attack by Israel and the United States. The strikes targeted his compound in downtown Tehran. Satellite photos from Airbus showed the site heavily bombed. His death at his office “showed that he consistently stood among the people and at the forefront of his responsibilities, confronting what officials call global arrogance”, state TV said.
Also killed in the operation were Ali Shamkhani, top adviser to the supreme leader; Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammed Pakpour; Iran’s chief of army staff, Gen Abdol Rahim Mousavi; and defence minister Gen Aziz Nasirzadeh, IRNA reported. Iran’s cabinet warned that this “great crime will never go unanswered”. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard warned of “a severe, decisive and regret-inducing punishment” over Khamenei’s killing.
President Donald Trump announced the death hours earlier, saying it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote in a social media post. He warned of “heavy and pinpoint bombing” that he said would continue throughout the week and even beyond, part of a lethal assault the US has justified as necessary to disable the country’s nuclear capabilities.
As reports trickled out about the death, eyewitnesses in Tehran told foreign media that some residents were rejoicing, blowing whistles and letting out ululations. Iran, which responded to the strikes with its own counterassault, warned of retribution.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, said Israel and America will “regret their actions”. “The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will deliver an unforgettable lesson to the hellish international oppressors,” Larijani posted on X.
The joint US-Israel operation, which officials say was planned for months, took place on Saturday during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and at the start of the Iranian workweek. About 12 hours after the attacks began, the US military reported no US casualties and minimal damage at US bases despite “hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks”. Targets in Iran included Revolutionary Guard command facilities, air defence systems, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields.
Israel said it had killed the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the country’s defence minister, as well as the secretary of the Iranian Security Council, a close adviser to Khamenei. Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones toward Israel and at US military bases in the region, and exchanges of fire continued into the night. Casualties were reported on multiple sides.
An Iranian diplomat told the United Nations Security Council that hundreds of civilians were killed and wounded in the strikes. In southern Iran, at least 115 people were reported killed when a girls’ school was struck, and dozens more were wounded, the local governor told Iranian state TV. IRNA said at least 15 people were killed in the southwest, quoting the governor of the Lamerd region. A woman in the Tel Aviv area died after being wounded in an Iranian missile attack, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile attack on the UAE capital killed one person, state media said.
The killing of Khamenei appeared certain to create a leadership vacuum given the absence of a known successor. He had led Iran’s clerical establishment and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the two main centres of power in the governing theocracy, for decades since succeeding Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Democrats decried that Trump had taken action without congressional authorisation, though the White House said the administration had briefed several Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress in advance. The strikes could rattle global markets, particularly if Iran makes the Strait of Hormuz unsafe for commercial traffic. Flights across the Middle East were disrupted, and air defence fire was heard over Dubai. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan all reported coming under Iranian attack or dealing with incoming missiles and drones.
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