The Lahore police on Tuesday said it detained more than 30 PTI activists after they took to the streets to officially kick off a nationwide movement for the release of ex-premier Imran Khan, who has been in jail for two years now.
Imran, imprisoned since Aug 5, 2023 in a case related to state gifts, is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in a £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials in alleged terrorism cases related to the May 9, 2023 riots.
Imran had issued a nationwide protest call, with a statement attributed to him saying that the “movement that begins on August 5 will continue until democracy is restored in its true spirit”. According to PTI leader Asad Qaiser, August 5 was the inception of the protest, but it should not be considered a “final call”.
Lahore Deputy Inspector General (operations) Faisal Kamran told Dawn.com: “More than 30 PTI activists trying to block roads in different areas of the city were taken into custody.”
He denied reports of the police arresting hundreds of activists.
At around 1pm, the PTI claimed that one of its leaders, Rehana Dar, had been detained by the police in Lahore.
“An elder like Rehana Dar is being dragged by the shameless Punjab Police, a disgraceful sight,” the PTI said on its official X account.
It shared a video showing Dar, who contested the 2024 general elections in Sialkot against PML-N’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, being dragged into a police van by personnel with riot gear.
The PTI said Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and Punjab Inspector General Dr Usman Anwar “have sunk to a new low with this act” and “abandoned all sense of shame and decency”.
Raja Shahbaz Bhatti, president of the PTI’s Insaf Youth Wing in north Punjab, claimed on X that he was injured due to police action and that four others were arrested.
PTI Balochistan President Dawood Shah Kakar claimed “several” PTI workers, including five leaders, were arrested after they gathered at a place in Balochistan’s Kohlu district for a protest.
The PTI’s Multan chapter alleged that its Lahore rally was “attacked by police”, with multiple vehicles participating in it facing damage. Visuals shared by it showed the back window of a car shattered with a hole in it.
Qaiser yesterday said raids had begun in Punjab and Kashmir, while PTI Punjab media cell head Shayan Bashir claimed that the police carried out some 200 raids and picked up party workers, who were released after allegedly submitting affidavits.
Opposition leaders stopped while heading to Adiala Jail
Ahead of today’s planned protests, the Rawalpindi administration banned all assemblies and gatherings till August 10 under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, citing an “imminent threat”.
Today, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, Tehreek Tahafuz Ayin-i-Pakistan (TTAP) chief Mahmood Achkazai, MNA Shandana Gulzar and others departed for Adiala Jail, where Imran is imprisoned, the party said at 3pm.
“We will record our protest under any circumstance as it is our Constitutional right,” Achakzai said on X.
However, they were stopped by the Punjab police, with the TTAP sharing a video of Achakzai’s exchange with the personnel. “This route is closed,” a cop was heard saying.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur is expected to attend a rally in Peshawar, according to a video showing a container for that gathering.
According to other videos it posted, the party organised rallies in various cities across the country.
Former Azad Jammu and Kashmir premier Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi, who was recently detained under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, also led a rally after his last-night release, the PTI said.
The PTI also shared a video of convoys departing from Peshawar , Mansehra and other cities for Swabi.
The Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway was closed at 5pm at Swabi Interchange and both lines from Peshawar and Islamabad remained closed despite the various attempts made by the Motorway Police. The police failed to persuade the PTI workers, due to which the motorway has remained closed and commuters were forced to wait on the side of the road in scorching heat.
PTI leaders continued to address to protesters.
Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry lament Imran’s imprisonment
Separately, former PTI leaders Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry, both of whom had parted ways with the party in the wake of the May 9 riots, also lamented Imran’s two-year-long incarceration.
Umar, a former finance minister, said on X: “Even two years after Imran Khan’s imprisonment, the anti-Khan narrative did not sell, and the public believes that Khan is imprisoned on political grounds, not legal ones.
“Do not waste more time; the entire national leadership should sit with the PTI and carve out a solution in accordance with the Constitution,” he suggested, adding that there was no other way to end the ongoing political crisis.
Chaudhry said Imran was in jail “just for the sake of democracy in Pakistan and people’s sovereignty”.