Heavy shelling occurred near the Serena Hotel in Islamabad at 2:35 PM local time on March 1, 2026, to stop protesters rallying over the U.S.-Israel killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to an X post by @shaheryarhassan. Over the past hour ending at 10:46 AM UTC, a rally moved toward the U.S. Embassy along Fazal-e-Haq Road, which was closed, while the Red Zone was sealed. Pakistan's interior minister stated that people can protest peacefully in Islamabad, as quoted in an X post by @khantainer at 2:00 PM local time. The alert requested people to avoid the area near the Serena Hotel amid the shelling to halt the protesters. These developments in Islamabad follow earlier violence in Karachi, where security forces killed ten protesters storming the U.S. Consulate between 7:15 AM and 8:15 AM UTC, and six more died in clashes across Pakistan between 8:16 AM and 9:15 AM UTC, according to Sepah reports and a Khorasan Diary update on X cited in prior reporting.
