Pakistan closes roads to Islamabad, deploys forces to block protests

Pakistani authorities on Friday closed off major routes into the capital Islamabad and deployed thousands of security forces to prevent protests against rising inflation, police and activists said.

The political party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and a opposition group have coordinated on plans to hold rallies against a steep rise in prices in recent months, especially for electricity.

More than 10,000 police officers and paramilitary troops in riot gear were deployed across the city to push back protesters, police spokesman Mohamed Naeem told dpa.

The troops placed shipping containers to block roads leading into the city, causing traffic congestion as thousands of daily commuters waited in long queues.

Khan's party and the opposition group said police had arrested hundreds of their workers in overnight raids in the central province of Punjab, which borders Islamabad.

Energy prices in the South Asian country went up dramatically after the government raised taxes to secure a $7 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and huge paybacks on Chinese investments.

Pakistan's energy sector has been plagued with high cost of fuel and what experts said were bad deals with Chinese investors, whom the government has to pay for installed electric generation capacity instead of actual production.

The bulk of the electricity in nuclear-armed Pakistan is produced from either costly furnace oil or coal imported from outside the country.