KARACHI: Workers and supporters of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf engaged on Sunday in a rare fracas on the street outside the barricaded Bilawal House after a controversy over the longstanding walled security surrounding the former president’s house raged intriguingly after the PPP’s young chairman in his Dec 27 speech in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh had derided Imran Khan for siding with Taliban militants.

Bizarre scenes were witnessed early in the day when dozens of PTI workers holding party flags and sticks started gathering near the street leading to the Bilawal House which was barricaded with large containers and water tankers by the authorities. They chanted slogans against the government and called for removing the barricades which, according to them, caused hardship to motorists and area residents.

As they started gathering on the street, police commandos and constables in riot gears rushed to them. They engaged in a scuffle in which the PTI workers used sticks and police responded with batons.

In the meanwhile, dozens of PPP activists holding Benazir Bhutto’s pictures and sticks jumped into the fray making it an unusual sight involving the workers of two mainstream parties exchanging blows and abuses. They went for liberal use of sticks and attacked each other with the blows of fists and kicks and pelted each other with stones.

Policemen fired teargas shells and gave an equal bashing to the workers of the two parties.

The cameramen of dozens of news channels, who were holding their breath and waiting for the likely brawl since early morning, started grabbing out of the ordinary images with their oscillating equipment.

Police first got the activists dispossessed of sticks and then stuffed them into their vans to put them in lockups of the Frere police station.

A senior official said the PTI workers had tried to surround the police station, but the authorities managed to get them dispersed by involving the party’s provincial leadership.

“We requested the PTI’s Sindh president to control his workers when they tried to surround the police station with the warning that such precedent could turn on them with equally dangerous consequences if they came to power in future,” he said.

Police officials said they detained 18 activists – 11 belonging to the PPP and seven to the PTI. The incident has been reported in the daily diary of the police station.

Later, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah ordered police to release the workers. Mr Shah, who is also provincial president of the PPP, described the incident as detrimental to the cause of democracy and said that all political parties should promote political culture and work for strengthening democracy. He expressed the hope that there would be a positive response to his gesture (order for releasing the activists) and peaceful atmosphere would prevail.

Mustafa Jamal Kazi, Deputy Commissioner of Karachi South, told Dawn that two policemen were injured during the brawl.

Leaders of the two parties blamed each other for the incident.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari tweeted: “PTI goons have injured 3 policemen. Wht happened 2 Insaaf?”

He said in another tweet: “‘… Youth wing’ brought sticks and weapons to attack PPP workers. PPP workers women and children have been attacked.” He said his party’s ‘jiyalas’ were not scared of the ‘mini-Taliban in jeans’. “PTI wants wall down so TTP can kill me.”

Arif Alvi, PTI leader and MNA from the area, said his party took the responsibility for removing the ‘illegal’ barricades surrounding the Bilawal House which had not been removed despite a court order.

“Our protest was peaceful, but our workers were beaten up in front of police and Rangers,” he told reporters. “Our workers are peaceful now, but will not if such situation persists,” he said, calling the rival activists ‘hooligans’.

PPP MNA Shazia Marri said at a press conference at the press club that her party chairman had criticised the PTI chief for his silence over the killing of innocent people by Taliban militants.

Deputy Commissioner Mustafa Kazi said the barricades had been partially removed. “We are doing it phase-wise with the permission of the court. The Sindh government has got permission from the court for removal of the remaining security arrangement after a proper security put in place in the area,” he said.

Abdul Wahab, a Karachi leader of Jamaat-i-Islami which is a coalition partner in the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, condemned the torture and baton charge by police “on the PTI workers who held a peaceful protest against the illegal closure of a road”.

Meanwhile, local leaders and workers of the PPP held a demonstration outside the press club in Mirpurkhas against what they called PTI’s attack on the Bilawal House. They chanted slogans against the PTI leadership.