Pakistan’s Capital Is Turned Upside Down by Unending Protests

Another anti-government protest had come and gone in Pakistan’s once peaceful capital, and Saira Bano was ready to get her city back.

For four days, Islamabad had been a tense battleground after supporters of a jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan, marched into the city.

The capital, home to 2.4 million people, became a “container city” as the authorities stacked more than 700 shipping containers to block key routes and maintain order. Schools and shops closed, internet service was cut, and roads teemed with thousands of police officers scrutinizing passers-by.

“This is not the Islamabad I grew up in,” said Ms. Bano, a schoolteacher who had to cancel her classes for three consecutive days. “Everywhere I looked, there were barricades and containers. We feel isolated and anxious in our own city.”

A day of intense clashes on Tuesday between Mr. Khan’s supporters and security forces culminated in a hasty retreat by his party’s top leadership, including his wife, Bushra Bibi, who had vowed to stay at the protest site “till my last breath.”

Party supporters were pushed from D-Chowk, an Islamabad square that was the designated endpoint of the march, early on Wednesday. Ali Nasir Rizvi, the city’s police chief, said that 954 protesters had been arrested after defying a ban on public gatherings between Sunday and Tuesday.