ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistan’s government called out the military yesterday in areas roiled by deadly violence following the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan, who was dragged from a courtroom and ordered held for another eight days on new corruption charges that outraged his supporters and deepened the country’s political turmoil.
In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said the unrest by Khan’s supporters “damaged sensitive public and private property”, forcing him to deploy the military in the capital of Islamabad, the most populous province of Punjab and in volatile regions of the northwest. After Khan was arrested on Tuesday, crowds in Islamabad and other major cities blocked roads, clashed with police, and set fire to police checkpoints and military facilities in violence that left six people dead and hundreds arrested. Yesterday, protesters stormed a radio station in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
“Such scenes were never seen by the people of Pakistan,” Sharif said, following a Cabinet meeting. “Even patients were taken out of ambulances and ambulances were set on fire.”
Calling such attacks “unforgivable”, he warned that those involved in violence would be given exemplary punishment.
Sharif said Khan was arrested because of his involvement in corruption, and that there was evidence available to back up these charges.
Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote last year by Sharif, is being held at a police compound in Islamabad. In a temporary court there, a judge ordered the 70-year-old politician detained for at least another eight days, raising the prospect of more unrest. The military also weighed in with a strongly worded statement, vowing stern action against those seeking to push Pakistan toward a “civil war”. It called the organised attacks on its installations a “black chapter” in the country’s political history.
“What the eternal enemy of the country could not do for 75 years, this group, wearing a political cloak, in the lust for power, has done it,” the statement said, adding that troops had exercised restraint but they will respond to further attacks, and those involved will bear the responsibility. It said “strict action” would be taken against those who planned or took part in attacks on military sites. It did not directly name Khan in its statement.
Khan’s dramatic arrest on Tuesday – he was pulled from a hearing in Islamabad’s High Court on one set of charges, only to be arrested on another set – was the latest confrontation to roil Pakistan.
He is the seventh former prime minister to be arrested in the country, which has also seen interventions by the powerful military over the years.
