Pakistan: Police fail to arrest ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan after clashes
Police officers outside the former Pakistani prime minister's residence in Lahore, March 15, 2023. © MOHSIN RAZA / REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Pakistani police on Wednesday gave up on arresting former Prime Minister Imran Khan at his home in Lahore, who cried political conspiracy, after violent clashes with hundreds of his supporters overnight.
Advertising
Read more
A Lahore High Court order, seen by AFP, on Wednesday ordered police to "stop the operation immediately and withdraw" pending the outcome of a hearing in Islamabad regarding the arrest warrant for Khan.
«
Police and guards sent to harm Imran Khan were pushed back by the people " Imran Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, Pakistan Movement for Justice, in French) posted on its Twitter account.
On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday clashes broke out between supporters of the former prime minister who came to prevent his arrest and police who fired tear gas and dodged stones thrown by an angry crowd.
The politician, a former cricket star, was toppled in April 2022 by a no-confidence motion and has since faced a multitude of legal proceedings and is the subject of an arrest warrant. However, he remains very popular and hopes to return to power in parliamentary elections scheduled for October.
This is the second time this month that police officers have been dispatched to his home to execute an arrest warrant, to no avail. The former prime minister evaded several court summonses, citing security reasons. His lawyers say he was released on bail.
(With AFP
)Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Read on on the same topics:
- Pakistan
- Imran Khan
- Justice