Karachi, March 8 The Sindh provincial government of Pakistan has increased the deployment of police and paramilitary personnel at the US Consulate to over 1,000, following recent clashes between police and protesters over the killing of Shia supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
More than 12 protesters were killed, and around 47 were injured in Karachi on March 1 when they attempted to breach the security perimeter around the US Consulate. Similar protests were held in Lahore and Islamabad.
Police and Rangers personnel have been increased from around 100 to 1,088 following the attack on the Consulate, a senior police official said on Sunday.
SSP police, Amjad Ahmed Sheikh, said that security measures have been increased due to the violence by a crowd of around 300 people, most of whom belonged to the student wing of a religious party, last Sunday.
The government has formed a Judicial Inquiry Commission to investigate the incident, and it held its first meeting on Saturday.
Senior police officials said that police have registered three cases of terrorism, murder, and attempted murder against 150-200 unidentified protesters and have formed a committee for investigations.
The JIT, which recorded statements of various police officers, including DIGs of East and South zones, SSPs of Keamari, South, City, and East districts, was also told that a US Marine had opened fire at protesters when some of them breached two gates and broke into the consulate and opened fire with weapons.
A reliable police source said that senior police officials had told the JIT that around 3,000 people had gathered to protest the assassination of Khamenei, in response to alleged US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
He confirmed that the JIT was told that around 300 of the protesters, without the approval of their superiors, proceeded to the US consulate on their motorbikes and later managed to breach the security perimeter and break into the consulate compound, where some of them opened fire and vandalized the property, including smashing some windows.
The JIT was told that when some protesters started firing, an American Marine had retaliated.
The JIT was also provided with videos/footage of the incident, showing some unidentified armed men firing inside the consulate, and they were also armed with sticks, stones, and flammable materials, and some of them also snatched two official weapons from the policemen and fled.
