Even one day after the arrest of the popular ex-Prime Minister Khan, the unrest in Pakistan continues. The state reacted with harshness: There were several dead and injured. Now the army could also be used.
The situation in Pakistan has come to a head following the arrest of former head of government and current opposition leader Imran Khan. According to local media reports, police and Khan supporters fought for hours in different cities of the country. According to a hospital spokesman in Peshawar, three people were killed and 27 injured. A supporter of Khan was killed yesterday in the city of Quetta. The Punjab governor said he had approved the use of the army in the conflict.
In Peschwar, supporters of the imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Khan take to the streets.
Almost a thousand supporters of Khan arrested
Khan’s supporters had previously called for a march on the capital, Islamabad. They called on the population to paralyze the country with its 220 million inhabitants.
The government said supporters of Khan’s PTI party set fire to 14 government buildings and 25 police vehicles on Tuesday alone. In Punjab, 945 of his supporters were arrested. A ban on public gatherings has been imposed in three of Pakistan’s four provinces.
Mobile services restricted
Mobile data services like Twitter and Instagram in Pakistan were limited for the second day in a row today. Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb told Geo News that the protests were not a public reaction to Khan’s arrest, but an action by his party.
Khan was taken away by riot police on Tuesday. According to polls, the country’s most popular politician has been accused of corruption. If convicted, Kahn will be barred from running for political office in November’s elections.
Khan denies allegations
The former cricket star denies the allegations. Before his arrest, he had been publicly reprimanded by the powerful military. The 70-year-old former prime minister has accused high-ranking military figures and prime minister Shehbaz Sharif of ordering his assassination, which they deny.
Last year, Khan was ousted as prime minister after nearly four years in office by a vote of no confidence. Since then, Khan has claimed his ouster was illegal. He repeatedly called for new elections.
Discussion of the circumstances of the arrest
In an interview with the Indian television channel “India Today”, the Pakistani journalist Mona Alam is surprised at the manner in which the arrests were made. Nobody is above the law, not even a former prime minister. But she doesn’t understand why these cases of corruption always surface after the official term in office. In Pakistan’s history, no prime minister has survived the full five-year term.
“It’s a very sad state of affairs in this country; if this was the legal case, it should have been investigated a long time ago. I wonder why this didn’t happen and I don’t know how many subpoenas Imran Khan were delivered.”
In March, Pakistani security forces tried to arrest the politician at his home in Lahore. Because of violent protests from his supporters, they broke off the attempt. Imran Khan has been the leader of the PTI party, the Pakistan Movement for Justice, for almost 30 years. Last November, he survived a shootout during a protest march.
With information from Charlotte Horn, ARD Studio South Asia