Imran Khan Arrest LIVE Updates: The violent protests against Imran Khan’s arrest continued in Pakistan on Day 3, resulting in at least eight deaths and 290 injuries on Thursday. At least 1,900 enraged protesters have been rounded up in running battles with law enforcers across the country. Pakistan’s political turmoil intensified on Wednesday with violent protests across the country and the government deploying the military as former prime minister Imran Khan was remanded in custody for eight days on fresh corruption charges following his dramatic detention.
Khan was arrested Tuesday during a routine hearing in the capital Islamabad and whisked away to an unknown location overnight before appearing behind closed doors in a specially convened anti-graft court at police headquarters.
On Wednesday, Khan was produced in the Anti-Accountability Court No 1 presided by judge Muhammad Bashir, the same judge who had convicted former premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam in a corruption case of having properties in London. In its verdict, the court handed over Khan for an eight-day remand to the NAB.
Imran Khan supporters attacked the Lahore residence of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, police said. According to police, over 500 miscreants from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party reached the Model Town Lahore residence of the prime minister in the early hours of Wednesday and set ablaze vehicles parked over there.
The army was deployed in the country’s capital Islamabad, as well as in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces on Wednesday to maintain law and order amid violent protests.
At least 14 government buildings were set on fire by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party supporters in Punjab province following the dramatic arrest of Khan in a corruption case on Tuesday, police said.
The violent clashes between Imran Khan’s supporters and security forces have left at least seven people dead and nearly 300 injured. The law enforcement agencies have arrested 1,150 PTI supporters including women in Punjab alone so far. Two top leaders – PTI Secretary General Asad Umar, former Punjab governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema and PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi – were also arrested on Wednesday.
The upheaval, including mass arrests of protesters, follows months of political crisis during which Khan, who was ousted in April last year, has waged an unprecedented campaign against the country’s powerful military.
The cabinet Wednesday approved deployment of the army in two provinces and the capital to restore peace, a statement from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said.
In Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, security forces fired tear gas to disperse supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, while PTI backers clashed violently with police in Islamabad and other cities.
Imran Khan, who remains wildly popular, has previously said the dozens of cases brought against him are part of an effort by the struggling government and military establishment to prevent him from returning to power.
His arrest has brought thousands of his supporters to the streets in several cities.
At least six people have died in protest-related incidents, police and hospitals reported, including one person who died from smoke inhalation after a building was set ablaze in Lahore.