25 killed at Pakistan's pro-Iran protests

The death toll from Pakistan's violent weekend protests over the killing of Iran's supreme leader has reached at least 25, according to the media tally on Monday.

Demonstrations erupted in several major cities in Pakistan, including the southern megacity of Karachi where some protesters attempted to storm American diplomatic buildings.

The media journalist witnessed hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters trying to enter the United States consulate, prompting clashes with police.

At least 10 deaths were reported and over 70 were injured, the office of the Karachi police surgeon said, while a hospital toll seen by the media listed nine people as having died from gunshot wounds.

Policemen walk past a burning armoured vehicle set on fire by protestors outside the US consulate in Karachi on Sunday. AFP

In Pakistan's northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, at least 13 people were killed in clashes between protesters and police, officials said.

Seven people were killed in Gilgit, a rescue official said, while six others died in Skardu, a doctor told the media on Monday.

Authorities have imposed a late-night curfew, which will remain in place until Wednesday in Gilgit and Skardu, where the army has been deployed on the streets.

Two more people were killed as thousands of people gathered in the streets of the capital, Islamabad, many holding photos of the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The media journalists saw police firing tear gas to disperse crowds near the diplomatic enclave housing the US embassy on Sunday afternoon.

'Grief and sorrow'

Israel and the United States launched their military operations on Iran early Saturday, quickly killing the long-ruling supreme leader and prompting outrage in neighbouring Pakistan.

A police armoured vehicle is set ablaze during a protest outside the US Consulate General, following news of US and Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Sunday. Reuters

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has close ties with both the United States and Iran, said on Sunday evening that the killing of Khamenei was a "violation" of international law.

"It is an age old convention that the Heads of State/Government should not be targeted," Sharif wrote on X.

The "people of Pakistan join the people of Iran in their hour of grief and sorrow and extend the most sincere condolences on the martyrdom" of Khamenei, he added.

At Sunday's Karachi protest, people chanted slogans against the United States, Israel and their allies.

Shiite Muslim women shouting slogans gather during a protest outside the US consulate in Lahore on Sunday. AFP

"We don't need anything in Pakistan that is linked with the US," a protester, Sabir Hussain, told the media.
Earlier a crowd of young people climbed over the main gate and gained access to the driveway of the consular building, smashing some windows.

Police fired tear gas at the protesters, who dispersed, the media journalist saw.
The embassies of the United States and Britain both urged citizens in Pakistan to be cautious in the country.

Agence France-Presse