In this video obtained from Twitter, protesters marking International Women's Day in Pakistan are attacked with stones and sticks by counter-protesters in Islamabad, Sunday, March 8.

Counter-protesters hurled sticks and stones at the women's rights demonstrators, causing some injuries and forcing a crowd of people to seek cover before the police intervened.

Tension had risen in Islamabad when about 1,000 women and men gathered to call for greater reproductive and other rights.

The dueling protests were separated by a line of police and a flimsy barrier.

Amnesty South Asia called on Pakistani authorities to hold accountable those who attacked the women's rights marchers.

In a society where women have been shot, stabbed, stoned, set alight and strangled for damaging a family's "honor," marchers have been accused of promoting Western, liberal values and disrespecting religious and cultural sensitivities.

(VOA/AFP)

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