ISLAMABAD: There was no reprieve on Sunday for the red zone, which had turned into a veritable war zone on Saturday night.

On Sunday, ground zero witnessed not only continuing clashes and use of teargas but also saw the suffering of the injured and wounded.

The young and old, women and men could be seen in small groups, tending to their wounds and resting.

Exhausted baton-wielding Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers were seen here and there, munching on whatever food they had managed to find. Many of them sported bandages.

“I have not been eating anything since yesterday afternoon, because I had severe nausea after the night-long shelling,” said Nida Zehra, who was being helped by her brother, “We went out to get some tea but all shops and hotels are closed.”

The young woman who seemed to be in her 20s had bloodshot eyes.

By noon, the PAT workers who had spent the night within the red zone were short of food and water.

Those in charge of providing food were handing out pieces of naan – it was all they had left from the day before, instructing the PAT workers to eat them along with water.

“Our food trucks have still not been allowed in and this is all we have left from last night,” said Ghulam Mohammad, who manages the food supply for PAT.

Skirmishes still continued in some parts of the long Constitution Avenue where protesters confronted the police with catapults and stones.

The charge on the media had also just ended. TV channels’ damaged DSNG vans were still parked in the area controlled by law-enforcement personnel.

The ruins of the afternoon provided a glimpse of the havoc that was wreaked on the seat of the government the night before but there was no clarity on the series of events that took place.

Despite what government ministers had announced on Saturday night – that the green area of the parliament had been cleared of protesters – they were still seen sitting there comfortably. Many of them had set up tents and laid out their beds.

Oddly, army personnel were stationed there on Saturday night but once the protesters moved in, they moved back, closer to the Parliament House building.

Further to the left was the road that led to the Cabinet Block, which was still sealed off by containers.

It is here that pitched battles first broke out between the protesters and police personnel.

According to police officials, protesters had removed the containers and were moving towards the Presidency. At this point, police used tear gas shells to stop their onward march. Until very late at night, this area witnessed the most shelling and fighting, long after the marchers had broken into the parliament’s grounds.

But in the afternoon, it appeared as if the containers had never been moved. The road had been blocked by placing four containers on top of each other and while the two at the top were topsy-turvy, suggesting a crane had tried to remove them, the ones on the bottom seemed untouched.

All around, however, there were signs of a hard battle having been fought. Shells were scattered all over – on top of the containers as well as the ground around.

In the rest of the city, a tense calm prevailed.

The city was quiet – even for a Sunday in Islamabad.

Rumours, of course, did the rounds – from a brutal crackdown by the government to a military takeover to violence spreading further than the red zone.

But later in the afternoon, somehow, it seemed as if the tension eased as local supporters of the PTI returned to venue.

Breaking the police cordon, they walked in, bringing with them some of the casual fervour one now associates with the PTI workers.

Their appearance also cheered up the weary warriors who had spent the night there and slogans soon filled the air.

By the evening, various other spots in Islamabad and Rawalpindi witnessed protests and roadblocks, by workers of PTI, PAT and Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen, such as the Islamabad Expressway and Faizabad.

By the time night fell, the mood had changed again.

Music returned to the zone that had been filled with shelling on Saturday night. In the midst of stones and tear gas shells and some still wearing their gas marks, a group numbering a few hundreds had gathered in front of Imran Khan’s container to listen his speech.

Small groups of people were carrying the PTI flags and chanting ‘Go Nawaz Go”. Most of them were speaking Pashto.

“I came from G-11 to answer the call of Imran Khan. We will remain here tonight to protect our leaders,” Shahmir Khan, 29, said.

Mohammad Nasir, 26, who said he came from Rawalpindi, also planned to spend the night there.

The speakers were blaring the trademark PTI songs.

The PAT workers however continued to rest in their tents installed at the grounds of the Parliament House.

“It is better to rest as there are reports of some action in the night. We have to be prepared for any untoward situation,” said Sajid Hussain, a member who has been assigned to protect the people. He was carrying a stick, indicating his ‘job’.

Food was being distributed – it had been brought by a few people.

“I came from Rawalpindi with the food. We are PAT supporters and some of our counterparts asked us to arrange food,” said Mohammad Naseem, a resident of Committee Chowk.

Suhail Ahmed, another participant, said that he and the others would not leave till Dr Tahirul Qadri gave the orders.

A little later Imran Khan appeared on the stage to give a short speech.

The evening, it seemed, had just begun for some of red zone ‘residents’.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014