New Delhi: Political agitation, police crackdown and widespread violence in the city have failed to deter some Pakistanis who have used the protest sites to showcase their talent. A wedding photoshoot and a parkour sprint at the site of shipping containers placed to stop PTI protesters from entering Islamabad are now going viral and have garnered close to a million views.
The ‘container couple’, as they are being called now, has even set up a YouTube page after their photoshoot.
The videos were accompanied by patriotic music too with the caption saying, “Pov: Its your Lifetime event & Lockdown said Hi”
Social media users were all praise for the couple.
“804 [a reference to Imran Khan’s prison ID number] the most beautiful shoot. They can show their future generations that they got married in the times when Pakistan was making history,” one Instagram user wrote.
In an interview with BBC Urdu, the couple said that their events had to be wrapped quickly due to the massive disruptions.
“Our wedding was in chaos, guests had arrived and the whole city was in a lockdown. Even our dresses were destroyed and we had to buy these dresses at the last moment. Amid all this, we decided to find a positive way to make our wedding memorable,” the couple said.
The post’s fame didn’t go unnoticed by the wedding photographers, Talent Studio, who addressed concerns about the shoot. Sharing a post that criticised the video on their story, the photographer said that the couple had been preparing for this day for a very long time and managed to make the best of the situation.
Also read: Bushra Bibi’s claims leave PTI supporters confused. ‘She went overboard with Islamic touch’
‘Don’t be scared’
And they are not the only ones not letting dire situations in Pakistan bring them down.
TikTok user Yasir Sultan posted a video of him doing parkour on the containers. The comments are filled with people appreciating how ‘Pakistanis can bring fun out of absolutely anything and everything’.
The video shows the user jumping atop containers while policemen keep a watch on the ground.
Borrowing Imran Khan’s famous phrase, ‘ghabrana nahi’ (you should not be scared), one Instagram user commented, “It is good that the containers are allowing people to show their skills. Go ahead and don’t be scared.” For other users, this man was the “face of Pakistani subway surfers”.
PTI even used the video as promotional material for the party. Jahanazeb Khan, former senior Vice President of PTI UK, shared the video saying that this is how people were making their voices heard.
“You might think this is a scene from a video game, but it’s not. This is the reality in Pakistan, where the illegal regime has blocked public protests by placing shipping containers on major highways. Undeterred, people are finding ways to climb over them to make their voices heard,” the post on X read.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)