New Delhi: Thousands of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) workers protested violently and reportedly tried storming the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi late on Tuesday after there were rumours that Imran Khan had died in custody.
Khan’s sisters—Noreen Khan (Niazi), Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan—along with party members and supporters gathered at Factory Naka near the Central Jail in Rawalpindi (also known as Adiala Jail) after the sisters were denied yet another meeting with the former prime minister.
Along with reports of Imran Khan’s death in custody, there are also some reports that he had been put in solitary confinement.
The protests, which had started out as a sit-in demonstration, finally stopped at the request of Islamist political organisation Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen’s (MWM) leader Allama Raja Nasir.
The Dawn reported Khan’s sister Aleema saying there had been no dialogue with the authorities. The sisters are upset at not being allowed to meet Khan. Aleema told Dawn: “Who knows, maybe Imran has been shifted. Why are they not letting us meet him?”
Tuesday’s protest follows another sit-in protest last week, when Imran Khan’s sisters and several PTI party members camped outside the jail, after yet again being denied the court-stipulated weekly meeting with the PTI founder. In a letter to the Punjab Inspector General of Police Dr Usman Anwar, Khan’s sisters accused the police of “brutal and orchestrated” violence against them and PTI workers “without provocation”.
“We peacefully protested over concerns for his health. Yet, without warning or provocation, the streetlights in the area were abruptly switched off, deliberately casting the scene into darkness. What followed was a brutal and orchestrated assault by Punjab police personnel,” Khan’s sister Noreen Niazi said as per media reports.
It has been over a year since Imran’s family has been allowed to meet him. Despite an Islamabad High Court order on 24 March, and another on 24 October, which ordered implementation of Khan’s visitation rights—twice a week—the jail authorities have refused to budge, denying the family any sort of meeting.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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