A charred lorry, empty tear gas shells and posters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan – it was all that remained of a massive protest led by Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, that had sent the entire capital into lockdown.

Just a day earlier, faith healer Bibi – wrapped in a white shawl, her face covered by a white veil – stood atop a shipping container on the edge of the city as thousands of her husband’s devoted followers waved flags and chanted slogans beneath her.

It was the latest protest to flare since Khan, the 72-year-old cricketing icon-turned-politician, was jailed more than a year ago after falling foul of the country’s influential military which helped catapult him to power.

“My children and my brothers! You have to stand with me,” Bibi cried on Tuesday afternoon, her voice cutting through the deafening roar of the crowd.

“But even if you don’t,” she continued, “I will still stand firm.

“This is not just about my husband. It is about this country and its leader.”

It was, noted some watchers of Pakistani politics, her political debut.

But as the sun rose on Wednesday morning, there was no sign of Bibi, nor the thousands of protesters who had marched through the country to the heart of the capital, demanding the release of their jailed leader.

While other PMs have fallen out with Pakistan’s military in the past, Khan’s refusal to stay quiet behind bars is presenting an extraordinary challenge – escalating the standoff and leaving the country deeply divided.

Exactly what happened to the so-called “final march”, and Bibi, when the city went dark is still unclear.

All eyewitnesses like Samia* can say for certain is that the lights went out suddenly, plunging D Chowk, the square where they had gathered, into blacknessT