Imran Khan is dramatically arrested and led away during court hearing – with supporters claiming the former Pakistan PM is being TORTURED
- Khan was dragged away from court by dozens of armoured police officers
- Supporters of the former cricket star denounced the arrest as an ‘abduction’
Imran Khan has been arrested and led away during a court hearing, dramatic footage shows, with his supporters claiming he is being tortured.
Officials from the party of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister confirmed the arrest as Khan appeared in an Islamabad court to face charges in multiple graft cases.
Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said the 72-year-old Khan was arrested on Tuesday on the premises of the court by agents from the country’s anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau.
Chaudhry said Khan was dragged out of the court and into a police vehicle. He said the former premier is now in the custody of the security forces.
He denounced the arrest as ‘an abduction.’
Imran Khan (seen in blue and white in the middle of a scrum of armoured police officers in Islamabad today) has been arrested and led away during a court hearing, dramatic footage shows, with his supporters claiming he is being tortured
Khan had posted a video (pictured) to his social media channels hours before his arrest today
A Reuters witness said shortly after Khan entered the gate of the Islamabad High Court, paramilitary forces and armoured personnel carriers entered after him.
The gate was blocked by the armoured vehicles while Khan was whisked away shortly after under heavy security, the witness added.
Pakistan’s independent GEO TV broadcast images of Khan being pulled by dozens of security forces towards an armoured vehicle, which took him away.
The footage showed a swarm of armoured riot police surrounding Khan, dragging him towards the black Nissan SUV.
After the former premier was whisked away, a scuffle broke out between Khan’s supporters and police. Chaudhry said some of Khan’s lawyers and supporters were injured in the scuffle, as were several policemen.
Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April last year. He has claimed his ouster was illegal and a Western conspiracy and has campaigned against the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, demanding early elections.
Khan’s party immediately complained to the Islamabad High Court, which requested a police report explaining the charges for Khan’s arrest.
Officials from the anti-corruption body said that Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau had issued arrest warrants for Khan last week in a separate graft case, for which he had not obtained bail – something that would protect him from arrest under the country’s laws.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Khan will be brought to appear before an anti-graft tribunal later on Tuesday.
There were no other official statements from the government on Khan’s arrest.
Security personnel escort Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan (centre) sitting on a wheelchair at the high court in Islamabad on May 9
Private security personnel with bulletproof shields escort former Prime Minister Imran Khan as he arrives to appear in a court, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 9,
Security personnel use bullet proof shields to protect Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan as he arrives at the high court in Islamabad on May 9
Security personnel stand guard as Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan arrives at the high court in Islamabad on May 9
Pictured: Security personnel escort a car carrying Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan as he arrives at the high court in Islamabad on May 9
Khan had arrived in Islamabad earlier in the day from the nearby city of Lahore, where he resides, to face charges before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in multiple graft cases against him.
Khan’s graft case is one of over 100 cases registered against him since he was ousted from power in a parliamentary vote in April last year. He served four of his five-year term.
In most of the cases, Khan faces being barred from holding public office if convicted, with a national election scheduled for November.
He has claimed that the string of cases against him, which include terrorism charges, are a plot Sharif’s government to discredit the former cricket star turned Islamist politician.
Khan’s party previously vowed to ramp up protests upon his arrest, which analysts say would add to the struggles of a government already hobbled by an economic crisis that has left the nuclear-armed country on the brink of default.
PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry initially confirmed the news of Khan’s arrest, prompting IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq to order Islamabad police chief and two other justice officials to appear before the court within 15 minutes.
Farooq said he was showing ‘restraint’, and warned that he would summon the Prime Minister himself should the police chief not appear.
‘Come to court and tell us why Imran has been arrested and in which case,’ he said.
Barrister Gohar Khan, who was at the IHC during Khan’s arrest, claimed the former Prime Minister was being ‘tortured’.
‘They hit Imran’s head and leg,’ he told Dawn.com.
Khan’s arrest came after he accused Major General Faisal Naseer of being involved in an assassination attempt against him in Wazirabad. The former PM had doubled down on the allegations in a video message earlier today.
It also follows several other attempts to arrest him.
Fawad Chaudhry, the Vice President of the PTI, tweeted that ‘occupied by the Rangers’ and lawyers ‘are being subjected to torture’.
‘Imran Khan’s car has been surrounded,’ he added in another Tweet, before going on to write that the ex-PM had been ‘abducted from Court premises’.
Khan (pictured last year) was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April last year. He has claimed his ouster was illegal and a Western conspiracy and has campaigned against the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, demanding early elections
PTI leader Hammad Azhar denounced the arrest as being ‘not acceptable,’ saying the arrest ‘is our red line’ while calling on people to take to the streets.
PTI’s Shafqat Mahmood said Khan was ‘manhandled and mistreated’. ‘This is height of fascism and totally unacceptable. Rule of law in the country is over,’ he said.
The Islamabad police rejected the PTI’s accusation that people had been tortured, adding that officers had surrounded Khan’s car.
It said that a Section 144 had been imposed on Islamabad for seven days. The order prohibits public gatherings in a given jurisdiction.
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