New Delhi: The Pakistani police have been unsuccessful in arresting former prime minister Imran Khan from his Lahore home as his supporters continued to violently push them back for nearly 24 hours.
Eventually, hours after the day-long escalation continued between Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters and law enforcement agencies, the Lahore High Court stopped the police operation at Zaman Park till 10 am Thursday.
Khan, who is to be arrested on an Islamabad court’s orders in the Toshakhana case, sent out a second video to the nation Wednesday, saying that hope lay with the establishment in ending this “farce”.
اپنی قوم کے لئے میرا پیغام!pic.twitter.com/Dv3i9X0S1J
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) March 14, 2023
The Islamabad Police, armoured to the boot, have been trying since 2 pm Tuesday afternoon to enter and arrest Khan from his Zaman Park home.
Faced with an onslaught of stones, the police deployed a water cannon and tear gas to disperse the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief’s loyalists who gathered in hundreds in the lane leading up to the house.
On Wednesday, the police were joined by rangers.
Khan tweeted: “After our workers and leadership faced police onslaught since yesterday morning of tear gas, cannons with chemical water, rubber bullets and live bullets this morning; we now have Rangers taking over and are now in direct confrontation with the people.
“My question to the Establishment, to those who claim they are ‘neutral’ — Is this your idea of neutrality. Rangers directly confronting unarmed protestors and leadership of largest political party when their leader is facing an illegal warrant and case already in court and when govt of crooks trying to abduct and possibly murder him?”
He said the arrest claim was mere drama because the real intention was “abduct and assassinate”. “From tear gas and water cannons, they have now resorted to live firing. I signed a surety bond last evening, but the DIG refused to even entertain it. There is no doubt of their mala fide intent,” he said.
He also warned in his video address: “It will (soon) be out of our hands… the kinds of actions that are taking place… the boys (workers) outside are not listening to me. When this anarchy and shelling is taking place against them, they won’t listen to me anymore. I have no control over them now.”
In the first video message last evening, Khan had asked his supporters to come out of their homes, saying, ““If something happens to me and I am sent to jail or if I am killed, you have to prove that you will struggle without Imran Khan and not accept the slavery of these thieves and of the one person who has been making decisions for the country
On Wednesday, he said the hope lay with the judiciary and the establishment. He asked the government: “…Do you have an interest in Pakistan or not?… End the farce that is happening (and) think about the country. Do not work on this London plan. This country is heading towards destruction. It is my appeal to all of you that now, think of this country.”
https://theprint.in/world/my-arrest-part-of-london-plan-imran-khan-2/1444144/
Saying he had never seen such an attack on a politician’s house, he said he only wanted the Toshakhana case to be moved to a court with adequate security. He said the court in Islamabad hearing the Toshakhana case has witnessed many blasts.
Khan said: “What did I want? All I had asked for was for the case to be transferred to a court with adequate security. But arrest warrants were issued for me. It is unprecedented that an ex-prime minister has been refused security and is being attacked.”
Khan is fighting several cases in various Pakistan cities, but the Toshakhana case has an active arrest warrant.
It pertains to the illegal sale of gifts he had received when in office from 2018. It is alleged Khan’s government did not disclose the various gifts he received as prime minister, among which some he sold to his personal gain.
Also read: Pak Rangers join police teams in fresh attempt to arrest ex-PM Imran