The raids conducted in Islamabad are followed by massive protests in the capital demanding Khan be released from jail.
Police in Pakistan have arrested several lawmakers and leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, belonging to the former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a series of raids in Islamabad, party officials and the police have said.
According to police, four people were arrested on Tuesday, while PTI said 13 of its activists were detained from different parts of the capital, some of them outside the Parliament.
The raids came after a massive PTI rally on Sunday to seek the 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician’s release from jail for over one year.
PTI president Gohar Khan was among the first to be arrested, and the crackdown began late on Monday.
The military rulers that are now consisting mostly of generals again dumped Khan as prime minister in 2022.
The police were seen dragging the lawmakers and driving them in the cars in the detentions outside the parliament, which the opposition leader Omar Ayub Khan termed ‘despicable’.
Today’s cable organizations have reacted to the government crackdown cropping up after the mass protest the day before yesterday, referring to the detentions as unlawful, said Khan’s chief of staff Zulfikar Bukhari on X.
Others held were senior leaders Shoaib Shaheen and Sher Afzal Marwat, said Bukhari, who is also the spokesman of PTI.
In February, PTI-favored candidates secured the most number of seats in general elections. However, they were shy of the majority needed to form a government.
His competitors, however, formed a coalition to establish a ruling amalgamation headed by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
