Thousands protest in Pakistan after killing of Hezbollah leader by Israel

Thousands of people protested in Pakistan cities on Sunday after Hezbollah confirmed that its longtime chief had been killed by an Israeli air strike in Lebanon.

Hezbollah said on Saturday Hassan Nasrallah was killed in the strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs a day earlier, dealing a massive blow to the group he had led for decades.

Around 4,000 people gathered in the Pakistan capital Islamabad and 3,000 thousand in the southern port city of Karachi during rallies and funeral prayers for Nasrallah.

“We stand against what Israel is doing in Palestine and Lebanon, this is why we are here today,” 27-year-old Taskeen Zafar said during the rally in Islamabad.

Hamas says Nasrallah ‘assassination’ will only strengthen resistance

Islamabad police arrested former Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) senator Mushtaq Ahmed who was among the protestors outside the National Press Club.

The killing of Nasrallah marked a sharp escalation in nearly a year of cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel, and risks plunging the wider region into war.

“Pakistan strongly condemns the growing Israeli adventurism in the Middle East,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Sunday.

“Yesterday’s reckless act of killing the Secretary General of Hezbollah in Lebanon constitutes a major escalation in an already volatile region.”

In Karachi, police fired tear gas shells to stop protesters from marching towards the US consulate.

Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border strikes on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

Nearly a year later, Israel announced a shift in focus to battling Hezbollah on its northern front.

Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,595 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.