In 1960 the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) - an ANC splinter group - embarked on a nationwide campaign in which passes were burned and other acts of defiance applied. The PAC's supporters protested outside police stations where passes were also to be burned. However, in Sharpeville, where in March some 5,000 protesters gathered at the police station, the situation got out of hand as the police panicked and fired on the crowd, causing great confusion as protesters fled for cover. About 69 people, including women and children, were killed and in the ensuing stampede 180 others were injured. The Sharpeville massacre was followed by riots in many places and the regime responded by proclaiming a state of emergency and banning both the ANC and the PAC. The two groups had no choice but to operate underground and embrace the strategy of sabotage of important government infrastructure and other facilities through their newly-established military wings. Government infiltration weakened the operation of the two groups and before long some of their key leaders were arrested, while others fled into exile.
From 1960 many South African refugees and guerrillas fighters fled the country and some found sanctuary in Botswana. The attainment of independence by Zambia and Tanzania in 1964 provided safe haven to the ANC as it established its headquarters in Zambia and guerrilla training camps in Tanzania. Botswana became a conduit through which many ANC leaders and young guerilla recruits passed on their way to Zambia and Tanzania. Many Batswana assisted in the passage of these refugees through the territory. Batswana who had been ANC activists, such as Keitseng and Mpho, were deported from South Africa after the ban of the movement, and once back home, they provided sanctuary to ANC members in transit.
