Move FM Global News

LAHORE, Pakistan: This week, police in Pakistan arrested more than 200 supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan as they attempted to hold rallies across the country. The protests were organized to mark the second anniversary of Khan’s arrest, according to a spokesperson from his political party and government officials.

Among those taken into custody was 73-year-old Rehana Dar, a senior member of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Dar is known for her strong and outspoken criticism of the current government, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Video footage from Lahore, a major city in northeastern Pakistan, showed police forcefully putting her into a vehicle, reportedly a police truck.

PTI spokesperson Zulfiqar Bukhari said that the authorities in several cities, including Lahore and Karachi, used batons and tear gas to break up the gatherings. Bukhari stressed that the rallies were intended to be peaceful and were organized to protest Khan’s continued imprisonment. The party also wanted to call attention to what it sees as politically motivated charges against its leader.

However, the government had already banned public gatherings in several places, including the capital city of Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi, where Khan is currently being held in prison after being convicted in multiple legal cases.

The majority of the arrests reportedly happened in Rawalpindi, where police accused the protesters of violating the ban. Others were detained in Lahore, but the reasons for their arrests were not made clear.

The crackdown on PTI supporters came just hours after Pakistan’s election commission announced the disqualification of several party leaders, including opposition figure Omar Ayub Khan. The disqualifications were tied to their convictions in connection with riots that occurred in May 2023, shortly after Imran Khan was first arrested on corruption charges.

Imran Khan was removed from office in April 2022 after a no-confidence vote in Parliament. The effort to oust him was led by then-opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, who is now the prime minister. Since then, Khan and his supporters have faced a series of legal and political challenges, which they argue are part of a broader effort to silence opposition in the country.