Pak army takes stock of crisis as violence escalates
August 31, 2014  21:05
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The top brass of the powerful Pakistani army chaired by its chief General Raheel Sharif held an urgent meeting tonight to discuss the political crisis that has engulfed the country after night-long clashes in Islamabad between security forces and anti-government demonstrators left three people dead and nearly 500 others injured.

The army corps commanders met in Rawalpindi to take stock of the situation created by the 18-day siege of the heart of the Pakistani establishment, housing the presidency, the national assembly, the supreme court and the Prime Minister's Office, took a turn for the worst since yesterday.

Embattled Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose ouster is the main demand of the protesters, decided to summon joint sitting of parliament on Tuesday to discuss the political crisis which erupted into widespread violence in the capital last night after supporters of opposition leader Imran Khan and cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri sought to storm Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's residence nearby by breaking through the police barricade.

Image: A supporter of Tahir ul-Qadri, Sufi cleric and leader of political party Pakistan Awami Tehreek, gestures as she reacts to a speech by Qadri in front of the Parliament house building during the Revolution March in Islamabad. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
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