LAHORE: Clashes erupted between Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) outside Imran Khan’s house in Zaman Park Lahore after police from Islamabad arrived to arrest him on charges of threatening a judge in one of his speeches last year.
Punjab Police fire teargas shells to push back Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) supporters gathered outside Imran Khan’s house to prevent officers from arresting him, in Lahore on Tuesday. The police charged the supporters with batons and lobbed teargas shells.
Pakistani police and supporters of Imran Khan have fought pitched battles outside the former prime minister’s home in the eastern city of Lahore, injuring several on both sides, ahead of his possible arrest, a government spokesman and witnesses said.
Punjab Caretaker Government spokesman Amir Mir told media person that few hundred Khan supporters gathered outside his house after a police team arrived from Islamabad to arrest him on a court order, Imran Khan called on his supporters to stand up for the supremacy of law and fight for true independence.
Amir Mir said the government has called out paramilitary forces to control the situation.
“Police have come to arrest and send me to jail,” PTI Chairman Imran Khan said in a video-recorded statement posted on his Twitter handle.
“If something happens to me, or sent to jail, or they kill me, you’ve to prove that this nation will continue to struggle even without Imran Khan”, Khan said.
Several of Khan’s supporters were injured when the police resorted to teargas shelling, witnesses said.
The workers started pelting the police with stones and bricks, and in response police directed a water cannon at them and in some cases, baton charged them, he said.
The former premier has been embroiled in several court cases since his ousting early last year in a parliament vote of confidence.
He has been demanding snap polls in protest rallies across the country, a move his successor Shehbaz Sharif has rejected, saying the elections would be held as scheduled later this year.
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