Pakistani authorities arrested at least 178 people after a series of attacks on KFC restaurants during protests linked to anger over the war in Gaza and United States support for Israel, officials said. Police confirmed at least 11 incidents in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad in which groups carrying sticks vandalised outlets of the US-based fast-food chain.
The arrests followed weeks in which Western consumer brands had become targets of boycott campaigns and demonstrations. Protesters and some religious political groups associated the companies with US policy toward Israel, although the supplied evidence did not establish any direct involvement by KFC or its parent company in the war.
One KFC employee was also shot dead by unidentified gunmen at a restaurant on the outskirts of Lahore, according to a police official. No protest was taking place at the outlet when the shooting occurred. Investigators had not determined whether the killing was politically motivated or arose from another cause, making it distinct from the confirmed vandalism cases unless further evidence connects them.
Police in Lahore increased protection at the city’s 27 KFC restaurants after two attacks and said officers had prevented five others. Senior police officer Faisal Kamran said authorities were examining the roles of individuals and groups. Eleven people were arrested in Lahore, including a member of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, or TLP, an Islamist political party. Police said the protests were not officially organised by the party.
TLP spokesperson Rehan Mohsin Khan said the organisation had encouraged Muslims to boycott products viewed as Israeli but had not called for demonstrations outside KFC. He said any member who participated had acted personally rather than under party policy. That denial did not resolve whether individual supporters were involved, but it challenged any claim that the attacks constituted an authorised TLP campaign.
The incidents formed part of a wider consumer backlash affecting international companies in Muslim-majority countries and elsewhere. A KFC restaurant in Pakistan-administered Kashmir had been set on fire during a pro-Palestinian protest in March 2024. Other multinationals had previously acknowledged that boycott campaigns affected sales in some markets: McDonald’s cited weak growth in the Middle East, Indonesia and Malaysia, while Unilever reported a double-digit sales decline in Indonesia connected to geopolitically focused consumer campaigns.
KFC and parent company Yum Brands had not responded to the reported arrests at the time covered by the source. Authorities’ immediate response centred on additional security, arrests and investigations. The evidence supported a pattern of politically framed vandalism against restaurants, but it did not establish the motive for the employee’s killing or place responsibility for the overall unrest on any single organisation.
