With ex-PM Imran Khan in custody, Pakistan cracks down on his supporters, arresting a whole lot

ISLAMABAD (AP) — With former Prime Minister Imran Khan in custody, Pakistani authorities on Thursday cracked down on his supporters, arresting a whole lot in in a single day raids and sending troops throughout the nation to rein within the wave of violence that adopted his arrest earlier this week.

For this Islamic nation, accustomed to army takeovers, political crises and violence, the turmoil has been unprecedented. It echoed unrest that adopted the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto throughout an election rally within the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi. Her supporters on the time, outraged by her killing, rampaged for days throughout Pakistan.

Clashes with police since Khan’s dramatic arrest on Tuesday have killed not less than eight of his supporters and dozens have been injured. 5 of the deaths had been reported in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, two within the jap metropolis of Lahore and one individual was killed within the southwestern metropolis of Quetta. Greater than 200 law enforcement officials had been additionally injured. The demonstrators burned down a railway station on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday night time.

Police mentioned Thursday that almost 1,600 of Khan supporters had been arrested in a single day on expenses of damaging public property and attacking army installations. In a single incident — hours after Khan’s arrest — a mob set hearth Tuesday to the sprawling residence of a prime military commander within the jap metropolis of Lahore. Some 2,000 of Khan’s supporters had been arrested earlier on Wednesday and Tuesday.

Khan was dragged from a courtroom in Islamabad the place he confirmed as much as face graft expenses on Tuesday. He’s now being held at a police compound in Islamabad the place, at a brief court docket arrange there, a decide on Wednesday ordered the 70-year-old opposition chief detained for not less than one other eight days, elevating the prospect of extra unrest.

Additionally Thursday, police filed new terrorism expenses towards Khan and prime leaders from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf get together on expenses of inciting mobs to violence. They mentioned the mobs attacked army installations, broken public property, burned down dozens of police automobiles, attacked law enforcement officials and disrupted life by blocking key roads and highways.

In an tackle to the nation late Wednesday, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif — who took over after Khan was ousted in April final yr in a no-confidence vote in Parliament — mentioned the unrest by the followers of the previous premier had “broken delicate private and non-private property,” forcing him to deploy the army in Islamabad, probably the most populous province of Punjab and in risky areas of the northwest.

“Such scenes had been by no means seen by the folks of Pakistan,” Sharif mentioned, following a Cupboard assembly. “Even sufferers had been taken out of ambulances and ambulances had been set on hearth.”

Sharif known as the assaults “unforgivable,” and warned that these concerned in violence can be given exemplary punishment. He mentioned Khan was arrested due to his involvement in corruption, and that there was proof out there to again up these expenses.

Overseas Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who’s the late Benazir Bhutto’s son, urged Khan’s followers on Thursday to finish the violence however burdened that peaceable protests are their proper. “What has occurred, has occurred. Don’t make issues tougher for your self,” he mentioned.

Following the violence, the federal government has shut down colleges, schools and universities within the jap Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, the place Khan has a large grassroot following and from the place many of the violence was reported after his arrest. The federal government additionally suspended web service in numerous elements of the nation.

The federal government blames Khan and senior leaders from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf get together of inciting folks to violence, which continued Thursday in Punjab and within the northwest.

On Wednesday, a court docket in Islamabad determined that the Nationwide Accountability Bureau can maintain Khan in its custody for eight days for questioning over a graft case.

The army headquarters within the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi was attacked and Khan’s supporters stormed safety posts within the northwest, torching the safety Chakdara fort on the border with Afghanistan. In Lahore on Tuesday night time, demonstrators ransacked after which burned down the residence of the highest regional commander in Lahore, Lt. Gen. Salman Fayyaz Ghani.

“We are going to arrest all those that disrupted legislation and order,” mentioned Mohson Naqvi, the chief minister in Punjab.

Officers say Khan’s supporters particularly focused army installations as a result of he has been blaming the army for his 2022 ouster, whereas additionally claiming it was a conspiracy by Washington and Sharif’s authorities — expenses that each america and Khan’s successor have denied. The army has additionally mentioned it performed no function in Khan’s ouster.

The army on Wednesday issued a strongly worded assertion, vowing to answer assaults by demonstrators with full drive. It mentioned the assaults on its installations had been launched in an orchestrated method, and the violence was a “black chapter” within the nation’s historical past.

The army has immediately dominated Pakistan for greater than half of the 75 years because the nation gained independence from British colonial rule, and wields appreciable energy over civilian governments.

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Related Press writers Babar Dogar in Lahore and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story.

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