D-Chowk (Islamabad)

Last updated
Shuhada Chowk
Pakistan Islamabad Capital Territory adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Shown within Islamabad Capital Territory
LocationJinnah Avenue, Islamabad
Postal code44000
Nearest Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metrobus stationParade Ground
Coordinates 33°43′46″N73°05′36″E / 33.729435798731494°N 73.09334404119988°E / 33.729435798731494; 73.09334404119988
Other
Known forBeing a site of numerous political demonstrations and sit-ins

Democracy Chowk D chowk', Recently renamed as Shuhada Chowk by illegally incarcerated PM Imran Khan was ground zero for the largest, pre-meditated massacre carried out by military establishment on peaceful civilian protesters on 27th November 2024, it was previously known simply as shuhada chowk, is a large town square located on the junction of Jinnah Avenue and Constitution Avenue in Islamabad, Pakistan. It is located in the government district, close to several important government buildings: the Presidency, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Parliament, and the Supreme Court. [1]

The square used to be a popular recreational area for the local people. After the shift of venue from Rawalpindi's Race Course, the Pakistan Day Parade used to be here for several years. [2] It has now been moved to the Shakarparian Parade Ground. [3]

The square is a frequent venue for political rallies and other public gatherings, [4] and has been likened to Egypt's Tahrir Square. [1] Since the square is a junction on two major roads, such meetings have repeatedly paralyzed traffic in Islamabad.

In April 2016, the government decreed that the square should be rebuilt to make it a no-go area for protesters. [5] However, political rallies continue to be held there. [6]

History of gatherings

The first major demonstration held at the venue was on 4–5 July 1980. It was conducted by a religious group against the imposition of Zakat and Ushur Ordinance by President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Led by Mufti Jafar Hussain, the protesters took over the nearby Pakistan Secretariat building, after which their demands were accepted, and they were exempted from paying the new proposed taxes. [7]

On 17 August 1989, Nawaz Sharif led the opposition parties on the first death anniversary of Zia-ul-Haq. The crowd dispersed after the involvement of Interior Minister Aitzaz Ahsan. [7]

On 16 November 1992, the opposition parties marched towards the D-Chowk while protesting against alleged rigging in the 1990 Pakistani general election. A few months later, on 16 July 1993, Benazir Bhutto, who was the Leader of the Opposition then, led her supporters towards the Secretariat while pressuring Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign. This led to him, as well as President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, resigning, after the intervention of Chief of Army Staff Abdul Waheed Kakar. [7]

As part of the Lawyers' Movement, Pakistani lawyers and their supporters ended their 2009 long march in front of the Parliament. [8]

In January 2013, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri and thousands of his Minhaj-ul-Quran supporters staged a sit-in at D-chowk, [9] demanding the resignation of the government. [10]

In April 2014, human rights activists and civil society members protested against missing persons at D-Chowk before being baton charge by the police. [11]

On 14 August 2014, Imran Khan and Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri led their Azadi march and Inqilab March respectively from Lahore to D-Chowk in Islamabad while protesting against the Pakistan Muslim League (N) government. A 126-day sit-in followed, which ended on 17 December 2014. [12] [7]

On 27 March 2016, thousands of protestors from religious groups camped out at D-Chowk for several days after observing the chelum of Mumtaz Qadri. [13]

In February 2022, Pakistan People's Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari led his Awami March, which commenced from Karachi and ended at Islamabad's D-Chowk. [12]

Since May 2024, the sit-in organized by the Save Gaza Campaign has been ongoing. D Chowk was renamed Gaza Chowk on the 27th day of the sit-in to express love for Palestine and Gaza. It was appealed to the public that now D Chowk will be written, said and called Gaza Chowk. The board of Gaza Chowk was unveiled. [14]

In November 2024, D-Chowk was the site of the 2024 Final Call protests, where supporters of Imran Khan marched to the capital, calling for him to be released. As a result, there was a violent crackdown by Pakistani security forces, resulting in at least 6 deaths, [15] as well as thousands of arrests. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imran Khan</span> Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022

Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is a Pakistani politician and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He is the founder and former chairman of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from 1996 to 2023. He was the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf</span> Political party in Pakistan

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is a political party in Pakistan established in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI ranks among the three major Pakistani political parties alongside the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML–N) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), and it is the largest party in terms of representation in the National Assembly of Pakistan since the 2018 general election. With a claimed membership of over 10 million in Pakistan, it claims to be one of the country's largest political parties by primary membership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pakistan Awami Tehreek</span> Political party in Pakistan

The Pakistan Awami Tehreek commonly known as PAT is a political party in Pakistan, founded by Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, took part in general elections in 1990 and 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri</span> Pakistani–Canadian Islamic scholar and former politician (born 1951)

Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is a Pakistani–Canadian Islamic scholar and former politician who founded Minhaj-ul-Quran International and Pakistan Awami Tehreek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fazal-ur-Rehman (politician)</span> Pakistani politician

Fazal-ur-Rehman is a Pakistani politician who is the president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F). He is also the president of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a coalition of political parties which ousted then prime minister Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion in 2022. He has been a member of the National Assembly since February 2024 and previously served in that position between 1988 and 2018. He was also the Leader of the Opposition from 2004 to 2007. He is a supporter of the Taliban government in Afghanistan and has demanded for its international recognition. In the 1980s, he was part of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), which was formed to end the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq.

The Long March was a public protest against alleged governmental corruption in Pakistan. The march moved from Lahore to Islamabad between 14 and 17 January 2013 and was organised by the Pakistani Sufi scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. On 17 January, the government came for negotiations and struck and agreement which was termed the Islamabad Long March Declaration, that ended the protest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen</span> Pakistani Shia political organization

Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen is a Pakistani Shi'a Islamic political organization. Its headquarters are in Islamabad. MWM Pakistan works to establish an Islamic democratic welfare state, particularly emphasising Shi'a-Sunni unity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatme Nabuwwat</span> Islamic religious movement in Pakistan

Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatme Nabuwwat is the programmatic name of a Pakistani Barelvi organization and Islamic religious movement in Pakistan aiming to protect the belief in the finality of prophethood of Muhammad based on Quran and Sunnah concept of Khatam an-Nabiyyin. It was founded by Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi in 1950 with Zafar Ali Khan, Abdul Hamid Qadri Badayuni, Khwaja Qamar ul Din Sialvi, Syed Faiz-ul Hassan Shah, Ahmad Saeed Kazmi, Abdul Sattar Khan Niazi, Pir of Manki Sharif Amin ul-Hasanat, Muhammad Karam Shah al-Azhari, Sardar Ahmad Qadri and Muhammad Hussain Naeemi. Later on the prominent Barelvi leaders Shah Ahmad Noorani, Shaikh ul Quran Allama Ghulam Ali Okarvi, Pir Muhammad Alauddin Siddiqui, Muhammad Shafee Okarvi, Syed Shujaat Ali Qadri, Iftikharul Hasan Shah and Khalid Hasan Shah also joined them to oppose the Ahmadiyya Movement.

The 2014 Tsunami March, also called the Azadi movement, was a protest march in Pakistan from 14 August to 17 December 2014. The march was organized by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) against the Pakistani government of Nawaz Sharif. PTI claimed systematic election-rigging in the 2013 general election, and PAT demanded justice for the culprits in the 2014 Lahore clash. Then PTI chairman Imran Khan had announced plans for an August march from Lahore to Islamabad with a group of protesters in a PTI jalsa (demonstration) in Bahawalpur on 27 June 2014. On 17 December, a day after the 2014 Peshawar school massacre, Khan called off the protest.

The Inqilab March was a public protest by the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), against the Pakistani government of Nawaz Sharif. It took place from August to September 2014.

Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, better known as Mumtaz Qadri, was a Pakistani Elite Police commando who is known for murdering Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Punjab. Qadri was a commando of the Elite Police and, at the time of the assassination, a member of the squad of personal bodyguards assigned to protect Taseer. A follower of the Barelvi version of Sunni Islam, he assassinated Taseer on 4 January 2011. He claimed to have killed the Governor because Taseer spoke in defense of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death. Qadri was convicted by the Islamabad High Court, sentenced to death and hanged in February 2016.

Ihtisab March was a protest march led by Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf against prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The march was in response to the Panama Papers in 2016 and PTI organized it over the claims of corruption of the Sharif family. The march began on 7 August 2016 from Peshawar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khadim Hussain Rizvi</span> Pakistani Islamic preacher (1966–2020)

Khadim Hussain Rizvi was a Pakistani Islamic scholar and the founder and Ameer of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a religiopolitical organization founded in 2015, known to protest against any change to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Azadi march</span> 2019 protest march against Pakistan government

The 2019 Azadi march was a protest march led by Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) in Islamabad, Pakistan from 28 October 2019. The march opposed Prime Minister Imran Khan, demanding his resignation, and new elections. No women were part of the protests. The protest involved hundred of thousands of protesters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">No-confidence motion against Imran Khan</span> 2022 removal of Pakistani prime minister

In April 2022, a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan led to his removal as the prime minister of Pakistan. Based largely on the Westminster system of legislature, the prime minister commands confidence of the majority of the lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly of Pakistan, under clause (2A) of Article 91 of the Constitution. Numerous opposition parties joined forces to file the motion of no confidence against Imran Khan in the National Assembly. It ultimately led to the removal of Khan from office as a majority passed the motion in the Lower House.

The 2022 Azadi March I was a protest march initiated by the ousted former Pakistani prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party chairman Imran Khan against the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. On 24 May 2022, Khan announced a long march towards Islamabad starting on 25 May 2022. Khan lead the march from Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where his provincial government helped him. Senior PTI members lead the march from Lahore, the capital of Punjab.

The 2022 Azadi March II was a protest march led by Imran Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan, from Lahore to Islamabad against the Shehbaz Sharif ministry. It succeeded 2022 Azadi March I, which took place in May.

Project Imran Khan was a purported political project, according to Imran Khan's political opponents, of the Pakistani military establishment that tuened cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan emerged as a mainstream national leader and his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf as the third force in the country along with Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan People's Party.

The D-Chowk Dharna was a series of protests held at D-Chowk in Islamabad, Pakistan, organized by the Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, A senior politician in Jamaat-e-Islami and former senator of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan The protests were held in response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, with participants demanding decisive action from the Pakistani government and the international community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">November 2024 PTI protest</span> November 2024 Protest in Pakistan

From 24–27 November 2024, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) organized the final call protest, also referred to as do-or-die protest, led by Bushra Bibi and Ali Amin Gandapur. During the protest, supporters of Imran Khan clashed with police in Islamabad as their march to the capital was obstructed. At least six people, including four security personnel, were killed when a vehicle rammed into them on 26 November. Meanwhile, several were injured during crowd containment via tear gas and rubber bullets, while some journalists were attacked by Khan's supporters. Late at night, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi warned that security forces would retaliate with live ammunition if protesters fired at them.

References

  1. 1 2 Mahmood, Faiqa (2014-09-24). "Why Pakistan's D Chowk Is No Tahrir Square". Foreign Policy . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  2. ↑ Shahzad, Mirza Khurram (2016-04-12). "Footprints: The D chowk that was". Dawn . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  3. ↑ Chaudhry, Muhammad Asad (2016-04-09). "Govt dismantles D-Chowk, new structure on site to be introduced soon". Daily Times . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  4. ↑ "D-Chowk hosts Pakistan's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations". Pakistan Today . 2022-08-13. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  5. ↑ "'D-chowk' Dilemma". The Nation . 3 April 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Khan, Azam (2016-11-01). "PTI's Nov 2 'lockdown' changed to 'thanksgiving' rally in Islamabad". Dawn . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Haider, Waqar (2016-03-31). "Pakistan's D-Chowk: A history of protest and change – Tuck Magazine" . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  8. ↑ "Lawyers on the march". The Guardian . 2009-03-12. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  9. ↑ "Security intensified at D-Chowk | Pakistan Today". Pakistan Today . 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  10. ↑ Nagiana, Umer (2013-01-14). "The dharna begins: The tipping point?". The Express Tribune . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  11. ↑ Azeem, Munawer; Ali, Kalbe (2014-04-29). "Protest for missing persons tear gassed, baton charged". Dawn . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  12. 1 2 Asrar, Aiema (2022-11-01). "Pakistan and its famous 'long march'". The Express Tribune . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  13. ↑ Shehzad, Rizwan; Hussain, Danish; Tanoli, Qadeer (2016-03-29). "D-Chowk protesters given until 10am to disperse". The Express Tribune . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  14. ↑ "اسلام آباد کے ڈی چوک کا نام تبدیل، غزہ چوک رکھ دیا گیا" [Islamabad's D Chowk has been renamed as Gaza Chowk]. Daily Jasarat .
  15. ↑ "Pakistan: Thousands defy police in support of Imran Khan". BBC News. 2024-11-26. Retrieved 2024-11-30.
  16. ↑ Shirazi, Qaiser (2024-11-30). "ATC sends 4,185 PTI workers on physical remand". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2024-11-30.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.