On Tuesday, Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s arrest sparked protests across Pakistan. The police fired tear gas and water to disperse Khan supporters.
Protests erupted across Pakistan on Tuesday after former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested during a court appearance in the capital for one of the dozens of cases pending since he was ousted last year.
His arrest follows months of political crisis and came hours after the powerful military rebuked the former international cricketer for alleging that a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him.
Some protesters took out their wrath on the military, storming the residence of the corps commander in Lahore and laying siege to a gate of the army’s general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse Khan supporters in Karachi and Lahore, while protesters blocked roads in Islamabad, Peshawar, and other cities.
Khan faces dozens of charges since being ousted—a tactic analysts say successive Pakistan governments have used to silence their opponents.
The rebuke late Monday underscored how far Khan’s relations have deteriorated with the military, which backed his rise to power in 2018 but withdrew its support ahead of a parliamentary vote of no confidence that ousted him last year.
Pakistan is deeply mired in an economic and political crisis, with Khan pressuring the struggling coalition government for early elections.
Pakistan’s military, the world’s sixth largest, holds undue influence over the nation.
It staged at least three coups since the country gained independence in 1947 and ruled for over three decades.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP.
