PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Four members of Pakistan’s security services were killed as thousands of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s supporters broke through government barricades and clashed with law enforcement in the country’s capital Islamabad Tuesday.

The interior ministry said in a statement that vehicles in a convoy of protesters ran over the paramilitary officers.

“It is not a peaceful protest. It is extremism,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a separate statement issued by his office.

The protests were sparked by demands for Khan’s release from jail and the resignation of the federal government over what they call rigged general elections this year.

Demonstrators dismantled roadblocks, including shipping containers, which were set up on motorways and roads to prevent their entry. Authorities meanwhile, fired tear gas in an attempt to scatter the protesters.

Farooq Khan, who lives in Islamabad, told NBC News that the capital had become a “battlefield.”

“We the residents have been restricted to our homes as all educational institutions and markets are closed for the past three days,” said Khan, who is not related to the former prime minister.

Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, and a key aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, who is the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, led the march that wended its way into the capital early on Tuesday, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party said.

Urging the government not to harm the protesters, Bibi told supporters to march peacefully toward the Red Zone, where critical state institutions, including the prime minister’s residence and foreign embassies, are located.

Khan, a former cricket icon turned ex-prime minister has been in jail for over a year. After he was ousted through a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April 2022, he was sentenced to three-years a graft case. Then in January, he was found guilty of revealing official secrets and sentenced to a further 10 years in prison.

He faces more than 150 other criminal cases, but he and his party remain popular.

He had earlier told supporters to stage a sit-in protest at a roundabout just outside parliament, demanding his release and a roll back of recent constitutional amendments they argue weakens the power of the judiciary.

However, Pakistan’s security forces attempted to stop the protests reaching Islamabad

On Monday, police fired tear gas canisters at supporters to stop them from entering the capital.

It came after a court last week prohibited rallies in the city, while police arrested more than 4,000 Khan supporters and suspended mobile and internet services in some parts of the country.

The PTI uses messaging platforms like WhatsApp to share information and relies heavily on social media platforms to share details of events. The X platform, which is banned in Pakistan, is no longer accessible even with a VPN.

Some PTI leaders held talks with the government on Monday as the federal government offered a designated area for the protest away from D-Chowk a large square in the Red Zone.

Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi said Khan’s party rejected a government offer to rally on the outskirts of the city.

Amid growing security concerns, the government has called in army troops to reinforce the police and paramilitary presence amid growing security concerns, particularly in the sensitive Red Zone.

The escalating tensions reflect a deeply polarized political environment in Pakistan.

Authorities say that only the courts can order Khan’s release, who was ousted from government in 2022 through a no-confidence vote in parliament. His party says the cases against him are politically motivated.

Mushtaq Yusufzai reported from Peshawar and Freddie Clayton from London.