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Pro-Iran Protesters Storm U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Killing 10 Amid Unrest

Pro-Iran Protesters Storm U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Killing 10 Amid Unrest
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At least 10 people were killed and dozens injured on Sunday when pro-Iran demonstrators tried to storm the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, the deadliest flashpoint in nationwide protests across Pakistan over U.S.-Israeli airstrikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei apnews +2. The violence outside the heavily fortified mission on Mai Kolachi Road unfolded as rallies and clashes were reported from Islamabad to Gilgit-Baltistan, pushing the country into an acute security crisis reuters +1.

Hospitals in Karachi reported more than 70 people wounded, with at least 10 dead, after security forces and consulate guards opened fire on crowds that breached outer barriers, smashed windows and set a police post ablaze, according to officials and local media aljazeera +2. Protests also turned deadly in the capital and in the northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan, where a U.N. office was torched, bringing the nationwide death toll to more than 20, though figures varied between 21 and 23 in early tallies apnews +2.

How a Karachi Protest Turned Into a Deadly Assault on a U.S. Consulate

Witnesses said thousands gathered near the waterfront compound waving Iranian flags and chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” hours after Tehran confirmed Khamenei was killed in coordinated airstrikes blamed on Washington and Tel Aviv apnews +2. As some protesters pushed through the first security cordon and vandalised property around the mission, police and paramilitary Rangers responded with tear gas and baton charges before live fire was used by consulate security, according to a Sindh government spokesman who stressed all U.S. staff were safe apnews +2.

The Sindh provincial government said demonstrators had “breached the security cordon of the U.S. Consulate and committed vandalism,” while announcing a high-level joint investigation team to determine responsibility for the bloodshed france24. Section 144, a colonial-era law banning public gatherings, was imposed across Sindh, and additional Rangers units were deployed around the mission and key arteries in Karachi as smoke still rose from burned-out vehicles into the night reuters +1.

Pakistan Balances Solidarity With Iran and Fears of Wider Escalation

The unrest exposed a dangerous intersection of regional conflict and Pakistan’s internal sectarian and political fault lines. Shiite organisations and pro-Iran groups mobilised rapidly in major cities, particularly in Shiite-plurality areas of Gilgit-Baltistan, framing the demonstrations as solidarity with a “martyred” leader and resistance to U.S.-Israeli power aljazeera +2. In Skardu and Gilgit, protesters attacked U.N. offices, prompting a curfew as army units were deployed alongside local police apnews +1.

Islamabad tried to strike a careful tone: President Asif Ali Zardari publicly expressed condolences, saying Pakistan “stands with the Iranian nation in this moment of grief,” while Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi urged citizens not to “take the law into your own hands” and to protest peacefully aljazeera +1. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad issued a rare nationwide security alert, warning of “violent protests at the U.S. Consulate General in Karachi” and ordering U.S. government personnel to restrict movements and suspend routine consular services on Monday ndtv. Iran’s embassy in Pakistan, by contrast, condemned Khamenei’s killing as a “cowardly, hideous and barbaric terrorist act” and praised his “martyrdom,” rhetoric that underscored the depth of anger on the streets bloomberg.

The Bigger Picture

The Karachi consulate assault marked one of the gravest security breaches at a U.S. diplomatic facility in Pakistan in years and immediately raised fears that the fallout from Khamenei’s assassination could redraw front lines far beyond Iran’s borders. With casualty figures still shifting, investigations just beginning and U.S. missions in Pakistan effectively locked down, authorities now faced the dual test of containing further unrest at home while navigating a fast-escalating confrontation between Washington, Israel and Tehran that Pakistan’s leaders publicly opposed but had limited power to shape apnews +2.