Pakistani police storm home of former PM Khan, arrest 61

LAHORE, Islamabad (AP) — Pakistani police stormed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s residence within the japanese metropolis of Lahore on Saturday and arrested 61 individuals amid tear gasoline and clashes between Khan’s supporters and police, officers mentioned.

Senior police officer Suhail Sukhera, who led the operation in an upscale Lahore neighborhood, mentioned police acted to take away a barricade erected by members of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf celebration and his defiant supporters. He mentioned they blocked the lanes round Khan’s residence with concrete blocks, felled bushes, tents and a parked truck.

Khan was not within the house, having traveled to Islamabad to look earlier than a choose to face expenses he offered state items whereas in workplace and hid his belongings. The choose postponed that listening to till March 30.

Sukhera mentioned baton-wielding Khan supporters tried to withstand police by throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and a person on the roof of Khan’s residence opened hearth. A minimum of three cops had been injured.

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Sukhera mentioned police broke open the primary door of Khan’s residence and located automated weapons, Molotov cocktails, iron rods and batons utilized in assaults on police throughout the week. Sukhera mentioned that contained in the sprawling residence, unlawful constructions had been erected to shelter individuals concerned in assaults on police which have injured dozens of officers.

Inside Minister Rana Sanaullah mentioned later that police would do an entire search of Khan’s house, the place they discovered bunkers and suspected extra unlawful weapons and ammunition had been hidden.

Witnesses in Lahore mentioned police tried to disperse Khan’s supporters by firing tear gasoline and chased them to a number of properties within the Zaman Park neighborhood.

Khan’s lawyer appeared in an Islamabad courtroom on Saturday after a prime courtroom a day earlier suspended Khan’s arrest warrant, giving him a reprieve to journey to Islamabad and face expenses within the graft case with out being detained.

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Khan had been holed up at his house in Lahore since Tuesday after failing to look at an earlier listening to within the case. His supporters hurled rocks and clashed with baton-wielding police for 2 days to guard the previous premier from arrest.

Khan’s motorcade arrived Saturday close to the federal judicial complicated in Islamabad, the place his supporters additionally clashed with police who prevented them from getting into the complicated. The enraged Khan supporters threw rocks at police who responded by lobbing tear gasoline canisters to disperse them.Sanaullah mentioned a lot of Khan’s supporters had been armed.

Khan’s lawyer, Babar Awan, filed an software for Khan’s exemption from look in courtroom amid particular circumstances.

Legislation Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar condemned Khan for not turning himself over to police and never showing in courtroom Saturday regardless of arriving on the judicial complicated gate. He accused Khan of utilizing his protesting supporters to keep away from indictment.

Khan’s supporters set two police autos and a number of other bikes exterior the judicial complicated on hearth whereas dispersing, based on Tarar.

Khan, throughout his street journey to Islamabad, mentioned in a video message that police had damaged into his residence in Lahore whereas his spouse was alone on the house. He condemned the motion and demanded that these accountable be punished.

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Khan’s PTI celebration secretary-general, Asad Umar, in a letter to Pakistan’s chief justice famous that police waited till Khan was en path to Islamabad to storm his Lahore residence. He mentioned the “doorways and partitions have been razed to the bottom” and greater than 40 individuals on the house had been arrested.

Khan, now the opposition chief, was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament final April. He’s accused of promoting state items whereas in workplace and concealing belongings, expenses he denies. It’s one in a string of instances that the previous cricket star turned Islamist politician has been dealing with since his ouster.

The 70-year-old Khan, who has known as for early elections in Parliament, has claimed that his elimination from energy was a part of a conspiracy by his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and the USA. Each Washington and Sharif’s authorities have denied the allegation.

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Related Press author Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed.

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