Supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan threw bricks at police in Lahore, Pakistan. Police have been besieging the 70-year-old opposition leader’s house in the eastern city of Lahore since Tuesday. While his supporters hurled rocks and bricks, and swung batons snatched from the officers.
Violence was also reported between Imran Khan supporters and police in other major cities of Pakistan. Major cities in unrest including Karachi, Islamabad, the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan. The government was sending additional police to tackle the situation in Lahore’s upscale area of Zaman Park, where Khan lives.
Early Wednesday, Khan emerged from his house to meet with his supporters. Who had faced tear gas and police batons through the night to save him from arrest. He said he was ready to travel to Islamabad on March 18 under his arrest warrant, but police did not accept the offer.
“What crime did I commit that my house has been attacked like this,” he tweeted.
Fawad Chaudhry, a senior party leader from Khan’s party claimed Wednesday that hundreds of Khan’s supporters were injured so far.
At the Islamabad High Court, Khan’s lawyer Khawaja Haris and his team petitioned for the suspension of the arrest warrant. The court was expected to issue a ruling about the suspension later Wednesday.
Khan claims that the string of cases against him, which includes terrorism charges. Which is a plot by the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to discredit the former cricket star turned Islamist politician.
From his home, Khan urged his followers on Tuesday to fight on even if he is arrested.
“They think this nation will fall asleep when Imran Khan is jailed,” he wrote on Twitter. “You need to prove them wrong.”
On Wednesday, he tweeted that there was a plot “to abduct & assassinate” him.
