Ex-PM Khan is charged with terrorism by the Pakistani authorities
Following a fight between Imran Khan’s fans and security forces in Islamabad the day before, police in Pakistan’s capital charged the former prime, 17 of his advisers, and numerous allies with terrorism and other crimes.
On Saturday, Khan’s supporters and cops engaged in a protracted standoff outside a court where the former prime minister was scheduled to testify in a corruption case. While Khan’s fans flung projectiles and fire grenades at the police, riot police used batons and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
A police roadblock, several vehicles, and motorbikes were set on fire, and more than 50 cops suffered injuries. According to police, 59 of Khan’s followers were detained during the unrest.
Khan was accused of selling presents he got from the state while in government and hiding assets, but he never showed up in court to answer for his actions.
In addition to Khan, the lawsuit, which was submitted on Sunday, names numerous Khan followers as well as past and present legislators, former ministries, and a former speaker of the National Assembly. The accusations include terrorism, impeding the performance of police officers’ duties, attacking police, inflicting injuries on officers, and endangering the lives of officers.
The newest events are related to the violence that has been escalating around the 70-year-old Khan, who was removed from office in a no-confidence motion in Parliament last April. Since then, the former cricket hero turned Islamist lawmaker has asserted — without providing any supporting documentation — that his removal was unlawful and the result of a plot between his successor’s administration, Shahbaz Sharif, and the United States government. The accusations have been refuted by Sharif and the US both.
Also on Saturday, after police entered Khan’s affluent neighborhood to take him into custody, fighting broke out once more outside Khan’s house in the eastern city of Lahore, where police and Khan’s followers had engaged in a confrontation for two days straight earlier this week.
Police invaded Khan’s home amid fights and tear gas, later reporting that they had detained 61 suspects and confiscated firearms, ammo, and fuel explosives. Khan was away from his house because he had to journey to Islamabad to appear in court. The magistrate moved that case to March 30 after he neglected to show up in court.
Khan blamed police in a taped video greeting played on Sunday for his failure to show up in court on Saturday, claiming he never got out of his car because they were firing tear gas at his followers and motorcade.
Khan claimed that his opponents are determined to either murder him or place him in prison and called the search on his Lahore house “shameful tactics, conspiracies, and plans” without providing any evidence to support his claim.
Rana Sanaullah, the interior minister, charged Khan with “creating all the drama just to avoid” the legal system.
