INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan&s party suspended street protests on Wednesday after a sweeping midnight raid by security forces
in the capital Islamabad in which hundreds of people were arrested, local media reported.According to a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)
statement, a ''temporary suspension& of the protest has been agreed to. The protest has left at least six people dead, including four
paramilitary soldiers and two protesters.Thousands of protesters had gathered in the centre of Islamabad on Tuesday after a convoy, led by
Khan&s wife Bushra Bibi, broke through several lines of security all the way to the edge of the city&s highly fortified red zone.Geo News
reported that a massive raid was launched by security forces in a pitch-dark central Islamabad, where lights had been turned off and a
barrage of teargas was fired. The protest gathering was almost completely dispersed, they reported.On Wednesday morning, city workers were
cleaning up debris and clearing some of the shipping containers that had blocked roads around the capital. The heavily fortified red zone
was empty of protesters but several of their vehicles were left behind, including the remains of a truck from which Bushra Bibi had been
leading the protests that appeared charred by flames, according to Reuters witnesses.PTI had planned on staging a sit-in in the red zone
until the release of Khan, who has been in jail since August last year.PTI&s president for the city of Peshawar in the party&s northern
stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the party had called off the protest.We will chalk out the new strategy later after proper
consultation,& Mohammad Asim told Reuters.He said that Bushra Bibi as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, a key
Khan ally, had returned &safely& to the province from the capital.
