(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/130114-islamabad-protests-qadri-jsw-1015a.photoblog600.jpg)B.K. Bangash / APSupporters of cleric Muhammad Tahirul Qadri wait for their leader in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday. Authorities put up barricades and sent riot police into the streets ahead of his arrival.By Waj S. Khan, Producer, NBC NewsISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Thousands of protesters marched on Pakistan's capital Monday, promising to establish a local version of Cairo's Tahrir Square in support of a cleric who is demanding a crackdown on corruption and other government reforms.
About 10,000 more assembled to greet the arrival of Muhammad Tahirul Qadri, who has been described by one Western diplomat as a "Pakistani cross between [President Barack] Obama and [the late Ayatollah] Khomeini [who returned from exile to lead the Iranian revolution and who later served as the country's supreme leader]."
His supporters hope to start a campaign of civil disobedience echoing the occupation of Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring protests of 2011, which ended with dictator Hosni Mubarak (http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/13/16489259-court-orders-retrial-of-former-egypt-dictator-mubarak?lite) being driven from power.
NBCNews