Police in Pakistan have arrested several lawmakers and leaders from former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party in a series of raids in Islamabad, according to party officials and authorities.
A police spokesperson said on Tuesday four people were arrested, however, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) put the number at 13, saying they were picked up from various locations in the capital, Islamabad, including some from outside parliament.
The raids follow a big PTI rally on Sunday to demand the 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician’s release from jail, where he has been for more than a year.
The crackdown started late on Monday, with PTI president Gohar Khan taken into custody.
Khan was removed as prime minister in 2022 after a falling-out with military generals, who mostly decide who will rule the nation of 241 million.
Media footage showed police pushing the lawmakers into vehicles in detentions outside parliament that Omar Ayub Khan, the leader of the opposition, called “despicable”.
“Yesterday’s massive protest has sent shivers down the government’s spine,” Khan’s aide, Zulfikar Bukhari, said in a post on X, calling the detentions illegal.
Others held were senior leaders Shoaib Shaheen and Sher Afzal Marwat, added Bukhari, who is also a PTI spokesman.
In February, candidates backed by the PTI won the most seats in a general election. Still, they fell short of the majority required to form a government.
His rivals cobbled together a coalition instead to set up a ruling alliance led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Calls for Khan’s release
The rally to demand Khan’s release was marred by clashes between supporters and police that injured a senior police official, the police said.
The PTI said the violence erupted after the police lobbed tear gas canisters at a peaceful assembly in a bid to disperse it.
Some party leaders, such as Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, criticised the ruling alliance and the military speeches at the rally.
“Put your house in order,” he advised the army, warning against any attempt at a military trial for Khan. “I am not scared of the army uniform.”
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Gandapur had threatened to free Khan from jail by force and incited his supporters to engage in violence.
In a statement on X, PTI said Khan thanked his supporters for peacefully holding the rally and quoted him as saying: “You have all broken the shackles of fear to stand up & fight.”
