Protests erupt in Pakistan after former PM Imran Khan arrested

The Pakistani police have used water cannons and fired teargas canisters to disperse protesters who took to the streets in several cities across the country, hours after former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested in Islamabad. 

Protests were held on Tuesday in Karachi, Quetta, Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Sialkot, the capital Islamabad, neighboring Rawalpindi, and Peshawar as well as dozens of other cities and towns. 

People in Lahore, Peshawar and Rawalpindi held demonstrations in front of the offices and residences of top Army officers as Khan's supporters believe Pakistan's powerful Army is behind his arrest. 

The General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi were raided by angry protesters and they vandalized the property, according to various videos posted on social media. 

Police fired tear gas at the protesters to disperse them. According to reports, a number of people have died and dozens more injured. 

Khan was arrested during a court appearance in the capital Islamabad on Tuesday.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party called on supporters to "shut down Pakistan" in response.

"It’s your time, people of Pakistan. Khan has always stood for you, now it's time to stand for him," the PTI wrote on Twitter.

Video broadcast on local TV channels showed the former prime minister being manhandled by dozens of paramilitary rangers of the Army into an armored car inside the Islamabad High Court premises.

"No way to treat a former prime minister and a popular politician. Pakistan is trapped in a vicious cycle and the establishment refuses to learn a lesson from its past misadventures. Imran Khan joins the ranks of former PMs who were a target of state excesses," Pakistani journalist and political analyst Raza Ahmad Rumi tweeted. 

"As we reached the court's biometric room to mark the attendance, dozens of rangers attacked us," said Ali Bukhari, a lawyer with PTI. "They beat him and dragged him out."

It was not immediately clear where Khan was taken.

The former prime minister was summoned by the court in relation to charges of unlawfully selling state gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries during his time in office.

Khan, 70, was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote last year.

He has since led a popular campaign against the current government led by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, accusing it of colluding with the military to remove him from office.

Khan has attempted to disrupt Pakistan politics since he was forced out of office in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. Since then, he has been facing dozens of cases against him.

He has been pushing for early polls due no later than October by calling for protests, pulling out of parliament and dissolving the two provincial assemblies his party controls.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan accuses US of funding ‘conspiracy’ to topple his government

Pakistan

After his ouster in March last year, Khan accused an unnamed "foreign power" - in a clear reference to the United States - of funding a "conspiracy" to topple his democratically elected government.

Khan said the "foreign power" sent millions of dollars to opposition parties to launch a no-confidence vote against him in the parliament. 

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