By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Nine people died and at least 35 others were injured on Sunday after protesters clashed with police and attempted to storm the US consulate in Karachi, as Pakistan witnessed widespread anger over the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes.
Dr Mohammad Sabir Memon, executive director of the trauma centre at Civil Hospital Karachi, said nine people had died and 31 had been wounded, all from gunshot injuries, after the confrontation on Mai Kolachi Road (also referred to as MT Khan Road in parts of the area). Faisal Edhi, chairman of the Edhi Foundation, confirmed more than 30 people had been injured in total, some critically, and warned the death toll could rise. He said some protesters appeared to have been shot by security personnel from inside the consulate compound.
Protesters, many from Shia organisations, marched from Abbas Town and gathered at Numaish Chowrangi before moving on the consulate. Some breached the outer security perimeter, entered the grounds and caused damage, with reports and footage showing stones thrown, sticks used to smash windows and doors, and at least one traffic police post in Sultanabad set on fire. Police responded with teargas and baton charges; additional Inspector General Azad Khan said “miscreants” had managed to get through the outer gate before being pushed back.
Additional inspector general Azad Khan said “miscreants” had got through the outer gate before being dispersed. Two police officers injured by “hard and blunt instruments” and two protesters with firearm wounds were treated at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said. Emotional scenes unfolded outside the Civil Hospital mortuary as bodies were brought for legal formalities.
The Sindh government expressed deep grief over the loss of life and announced the formation of a high-level joint investigation team to establish exactly what happened, its causes and who was responsible. In a statement, it acknowledged the constitutional right to protest but said “maintaining a peaceful environment is everyone’s shared responsibility” and condemned “any kind of vandalism, violence or taking the law into your own hands”.
Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah described the violence as “extremely regrettable” and said he had ordered an impartial inquiry. He held consultations with religious leaders, and instructed police to provide full security for any mourning gatherings while insisting law and order must be maintained. Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi called Sunday “a day of mourning for the Muslim Ummah” and urged citizens to express grief peacefully.
Sindh home minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar demanded an immediate report from Karachi’s additional inspector general and warned that “no one will be allowed to take the law into their own hands”. He ordered enhanced security at sensitive installations, alternative traffic arrangements and full alertness by law enforcement.
Traffic in the downtown Karachi was brought to a standstill. Both sides of the road from Sultanabad towards Mai Kolachi were closed. Karachi traffic police diverted vehicles from Jinnah Bridge to I.I. Chundrigar Road, issued U-turns at Mai Kolachi Phatak for traffic from Boat Basin, and turned back vehicles from PIDC at Park Cut.
The US embassy in Islamabad issued an advisory, saying it was monitoring demonstrations at the consulates in Karachi and Lahore and calls for further protests at the embassy and the Peshawar consulate. It urged American citizens in Pakistan to avoid large crowds and keep their Smart Traveller Enrollment Programme registration up to date.
Protests erupted across much of the country. In Lahore, hundreds of activists from Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen gathered outside the US consulate from mid-morning, several hours earlier than the scheduled 3pm start, and attempted to force their way inside. One protester scaled the boundary wall and was briefly detained by consulate security before police negotiated his release.
Police and Rangers pushed the crowd back; there were reports of minor scuffles when additional barriers were placed near the NADRA office, but no serious violence or casualties. Demonstrators, including many women, carried portraits of Khamenei and chanted against the US and Israel. Protesters later staged a sit-in after Zuhr prayers outside the Press Club, where security was reinforced with Rangers and anti-riot units. Absentia funeral prayers for Khamenei were held at Masjid Mansurah, led by a senior Jamaat-e-Islami figure.
In the capital, at least two protesters died and more than 30 people were injured in separate clashes with law enforcement near the Diplomatic Enclave and Red Zone as demonstrators tried to march on the US embassy. The government had imposed Section 144 across Islamabad, banning all public gatherings, and closed all routes into the Red Zone. Tehreek-e-Jafaria Pakistan had called for a protest and attempted encirclement of the US embassy; police urged citizens to stay away. Some reports spoke of several thousand people attempting to gather, with sounds of gunfire and tear gas in the air before the planned start time.
Hospital sources said one person died at Polyclinic Hospital after nine injured were brought in. The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) received one body and 25 injured, including three police officers and two Rangers personnel. Eight of those admitted across both hospitals were in critical condition. Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen spokesperson Hasnain Zaidi confirmed at least two deaths and said 15 protesters had been taken into custody. “We have started efforts to get them released,” he added.
In the late afternoon, thousands gathered at Aabpara Chowk intending to march towards the US embassy. The procession was stopped by police and Rangers at Serena Chowk, where heavy shelling was used, causing multiple injuries. Police had earlier used heavy shelling near the Foreign Office to prevent protesters entering the Red Zone. A police advisory at noon confirmed that all routes leading to the area, which houses important government buildings and diplomatic missions, remained closed.
The most intense unrest outside Karachi occurred in the Shia-majority Gilgit-Baltistan region. In Skardu, protesters set fire to the local office of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), as well as a school, the superintendent of police’s office and an Agha Khan Rural Support Programme building. Similar attacks were reported in Gilgit. Curfew was immediately imposed in Skardu and the Pakistan Army was called in under Section 245 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Arab News reported that seven people were killed and 45 injured in clashes in the Shia-majority region, though these figures have not been officially confirmed by authorities.
Protesters blocked the Karakoram Highway at multiple points in Hunza, Nagar and Gilgit, staged a sit-in at Siachen Road in Kharmang, and closed roads in Shigar, Ghanche, Roundu and other areas. Shops, markets and commercial activity remained shut across Gilgit, Skardu, Hunza, Nagar, Shigar, Kharmang, Astore and Ghanche.
In Peshawar, demonstrators gathered outside the Press Club under the banner of Majlis-e-Islamiya Pakistan. The crowd, which included women and children, carried banners and placards in support of Iran and chanted slogans against Israel and the United States. Smaller protests and mourning gatherings were reported in other cities as Shia organisations and religious leaders appealed for calm while expressing solidarity with Iran.
The unrest 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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