No fewer than nine protesters were shot and killed when crowds breached the outer wall of the US consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi, after news of the US and Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei emerged.
DAILY POST reports that the protesters shouted ‘death to Israel and death to America.’
In Iraq, however, police fired tear gas and stun grenades to scatter hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters who had gathered outside the Green Zone in the capital Baghdad, where the US embassy is located.
Pakistan and Iraq are said to have the largest Shi’ite Muslim populations after Iran.
A local government spokesman, Sukhdev Assardas Hemnani, said in Karachi, protesters were pushed back from the consulate after they breached the outer security layer.
Hemnani stated that they also set a vehicle ablaze outside the main gate and clashed with police, adding that the US consulate security officials opened fire at the protesters,
“We are in constant touch with consulate officials. They are all safe,” he added.
According to the police, at least nine protesters were killed and another 34 suffered injuries. Karachi’s Civil Hospital said all those killed and injured were hit with gunshots.
The US consulate in Karachi and the US Embassy in Islamabad are yet to make comment at the time of filing this report.
Iran: Nine people shot dead as protests erupt in Pakistan, Iraq
