Supporters of a leading cleric in Pakistan are ending a two-month sit-in in the capital, Islamabad, to demand PM Nawaz Sharif’s resignation.
Tahirul Qadri said his party was taking the protest to other cities instead.
He launched his campaign in August, saying he wanted revolutionary change in how Pakistan was run.
Another opposition leader, ex-cricketer Imran Khan, said his supporters would keep protesting in Islamabad until Mr Sharif resigned.
Mr Qadri has provided the bulk of the crowds in Islamabad but numbers have been thinning since September.
Imran Khan has already expanded his protest by holding huge anti-government rallies in Karachi and other major cities of Punjab province.
Struggling to sustain his sit-in, it seems Mr Qadri had little choice but to follow suit, the BBC’s Shahzeb Jillani reports.
There were emotional scenes at Mr Qadri’s sit-in on Tuesday night after he asked his followers to pack up and leave the capital.
“I advise all supporters that they continue to work hard to spread the revolutionary movement around the country,” he said, adding that they had achieved their aim.
Dejected by the announcement, many of his supporters were seen weeping and consoling each other.
They had arrived in Islamabad hoping to overthrow what their leader says is a flawed political system and bring about a revolution.
But in the end, they were being asked to go home without having achieved any of their objectives, our correspondent says.
Mr Qadri’s aides insist he is not giving up the fight – just changing tactics.
One of his supporters, Naveed Ahmed from the UK, told the BBC: “If I say that we wanted a sudden result, in that way yes, it’s a bit sad. But on the other hand the revolution is not like a one-day process – it takes time.”
Fellow supporter Farhat Khan said she thought it had been for a good cause.
“Now that we are leaving I am a bit glum,” she told the Associated Press news agency. “We’ve had good co-ordination among people who were here from different cities. We all came together to represent Pakistan as one nation.”
Source: BBC News
