Police on Wednesday surrounded the home of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, claiming he was sheltering dozens of people allegedly involved in violent protests over his recent detention.
The police deployment was likely to anger Khan’s many followers, and raised concerns about more clashes between them and the security forces.
Last week, Khan supporters had attacked public property and military installations after he was dragged out of a courtroom and detained.
Photo: AP
The popular opposition leader was released over the weekend and returned to his home in an upscale district of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city and the capital of the Punjab region.
On Wednesday, Khan took to Twitter after 200 police officers surrounded the house and a prison van appeared on the scene.
“Probably my last tweet before my next arrest,” Khan wrote. “Police have surrounded my house.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Amir Mir, a spokesman for the Punjab provincial government, said Khan has 24 hours to hand over 40 suspects allegedly hiding at his home or face a police raid.
Mir told a news conference that so far 3,400 suspects have been arrested and that more raids are planned.
Pakistani authorities have said they would prosecute civilians involved in recent anti-government protests in military courts.
Pakistani army chief General Asim Munir, said in a speech to troops that “recently planned and orchestrated tragic incidents will never be allowed again at any cost.”
The advocacy group Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said they were alarmed by the government’s plan.
Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for South Asia, said that trying civilians in military courts is contrary to international law.
Military trials in Pakistan are usually held behind closed doors, depriving civilians of some of their basic rights, including contracting a lawyer of their choice.
A wave of violence had engulfed Pakistan’s capital and other urban areas following Khan’s dramatic arrest from a courtroom. Khan supporters torched buildings and vehicles, and attacked police and military personnel and facilities. Ten people were killed in the clashes and more than 4,000 were arrested.
The Pakistani Supreme Court later ordered Khan’s release and criticized the way he was arrested.
On Wednesday, a top court in Islamabad extended Khan’s bail and protection from arrest until the end of the month.
However, his legal team fears he might be arrested in old cases.
Khan, 70, was ousted by a non-confidence vote in parliament last year. He is facing more than 100 cases, mainly on charges of inciting people to violence, threatening officials and defying a ban on rallies. He also faces a graft case along with his wife.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS