ISLAMABAD (AP) — With former Prime Minister Imran Khan in custody, Pakistani authorities on Thursday cracked down on his supporters…
With former Prime Minister Imran Khan in custody, Pakistani authorities on Thursday cracked down on his supporters, arresting hundreds in overnight raids and sending troops across the country to rein in the wave of violence that followed his arrest earlier this week.
For this Islamic nation, accustomed to military takeovers, political crises and violence, the turmoil has been unprecedented. It echoed unrest that followed the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto during an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Her supporters at the time, outraged by her killing, rampaged for days across Pakistan.
Clashes with police since Khan’s dramatic arrest on Tuesday have killed at least eight of his supporters and dozens have been injured. Five of the deaths were reported in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, two in the eastern city of Lahore and one person was killed in the southwestern city of Quetta. More than 200 police officers were also injured. The demonstrators burned down a railway station on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday night.
Police said Thursday that nearly 1,600 of Khan supporters were arrested overnight on charges of damaging public property and attacking military installations. In one incident — hours after Khan’s arrest — a mob set fire Tuesday to the sprawling residence of a top army commander in the eastern city of Lahore. Some 2,000 of Khan’s supporters were arrested earlier on Wednesday and Tuesday.
Khan was dragged from a courtroom in Islamabad where he showed up to face graft charges on Tuesday. He is now being held at a police compound in Islamabad where, at a temporary court set up there, a judge on Wednesday ordered the 70-year-old opposition leader detained for at least another eight days, raising the prospect of more unrest.
