Pakistan’s Imran Khan arrested, in move slammed by his party as an ‘abduction’
- Dozens of heavily armed paramilitary troops took Khan into custody at the Islamabad High Court, where he was appearing in an unrelated case
- Khan’s arrest comes amid a battle of wills between Pakistan’s coalition government and the Supreme Court’s chief justice over the scheduling of two provincial polls
Pakistan’s former leader Imran Khan was arrested in Islamabad on Tuesday after ignoring a summons in a case issued by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, in a move condemned by his party as an “abduction”.
Police fired water cannon and tear gas to quell protests that erupted among his supporters in several cities across Pakistan, after dozens of heavily armed paramilitary troops took Khan into custody at the Islamabad High Court.
Khan had arrived in Islamabad earlier in the day from the nearby city of Lahore, where he lives, to face charges before the court in an unrelated case for corruption.
Amid scuffles between security personnel and Khan’s supporters, the former cricket star was bundled into an armoured truck and driven away as soldiers clung to the sides of the vehicle, local broadcasts showed.
Khan’s party immediately complained to the Islamabad High Court, which requested a police report explaining the charges for Khan’s arrest. Islamabad police confirmed the arrest. There was no statement from Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s government.