Counting of votes underway after Thursday’s Pakistan election

Peshawar, Pakistan:

Two Pakistanis were killed on Friday in a confrontation between police and followers of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, police and his party said, the first confirmed deaths stemming from election vote counting.

Counting of votes is underway after Thursday’s general election in Pakistan, with candidates backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) performing better than expected despite a crackdown on the party.

Sporadic PTI protests broke out, with some claiming the delays allowed authorities to rig the vote count against them.

PTI protesters “started throwing stones at the police and set fire to a police vehicle,” said Sahibzada Sajjad Ahmed, a police officer in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district.

“Two protesters were hit by stones and killed as a result of violent stone-pelting by PTI workers,” he told AFP.

PTI candidate Syed Farin told AFP the demonstration was because the party had been “usurped” and “two of our workers were killed when the police opened fire on peaceful protesters”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)