Pakistan just barricaded its capital against thousands marching for Imran Khan
1 hour ago · 4 October 2026Share
Hundreds of supporters of Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan march through London's Leicester Square on 13 August 2023. File photo. Alisdare Hickson · CC BY-SA 4.0
More than 5,000 people have just set off on a march to Islamabad.
They're supporters of Imran Khan, Pakistan's former Prime Minister. He's been in prison since 2023.
And they want him out.
So the march kicked off a few hours ago from Gandi Chowk, in Lakki Marwat district. That's in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Khan's party is actually in power.
Leading it is Sohail Afridi, the province's chief minister. He's riding in a container truck with a huge portrait of Khan on the side. Behind him, a convoy of trucks, buses and cars. They've got stops planned in Karak, Kohat, Peshawar and Charsadda before they reach the capital.
Here's the thing about that number. An earlier wire report said only hundreds of people were expected to show up. More than 5,000 actually did.
So who is Imran Khan? He was Prime Minister until a no-confidence vote removed him in April 2022. He's been in prison since 2023 on corruption and other charges. He and his party say those charges are political.
His main rival, Shehbaz Sharif, came back to power after the February 2024 election. Khan's party says that vote was rigged. The government denies it.
Now, Islamabad itself. The city has been barricaded for weeks. Between 1,500 and 2,000 shipping containers have been seized by the government and used to block roads, in place for nearly four weeks.
And it's expensive. Police asked for around 820 million rupees, about $2.9 million, just to secure the city for a week during the march. With the delay, the final bill is now expected to top 1 billion rupees. That's around $3.6 million.
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Contains modified Capella Space satellite imagery of Zone III, Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan. Capella Space · CC BY 4.0
Because this march was supposed to happen on 27 September. It got pushed back to 4 October after authorities blocked key routes into Islamabad, including Attock Bridge.
But a PTI leader gave Dawn a different reason. He said the delay was partly strategic — the idea was to make the government burn through its security resources before the march even started.
So what about the talks? They broke down a few hours ago, after two rounds of negotiations. Gohar Khan, the chairman of Khan's party, PTI, said both sides were still deadlocked.
Mohsin Naqvi, Pakistan's Interior Minister, blames Sohail Afridi for that. He says the two sides had agreed on 99% of a deal before Afridi rejected it. And he says the real sticking point was counterterrorism cooperation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, not Khan's release at all.
PTI tells it differently. Raja Nasir Abbas, the Senate's opposition leader, says the deadlock was also about Khan getting access to his own doctor. Protesters want Khan moved to hospital and his family allowed to visit. The government says he's in good health and already gets regular family visits.
Naqvi has gone further. He says Afridi will be held responsible for any deaths during the march. And he says the government won't allow a repeat of what happened on 9 May 2023. The government also wants the march postponed altogether, pointing to a rise in attacks by the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest — and it's accused PTI of sympathising with the group.
That warning isn't just talk. Past marches by Khan's supporters have turned violent before. In 2024, security staff and civilians were killed in clashes during one. That November, police sealed roads into Islamabad and fired tear gas to stop Khan's supporters getting in.
And now the government says this convoy won't be allowed into Islamabad at all.
So here's what we don't know yet. When the convoy will actually reach the edge of the capital. What the government does when it gets there. And whether this ends the way 2024 did.
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