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full screen Damaged vehicles are removed after a huge demonstration in support of Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan in Islamabad. Photo: Anjum Naveed/AP/TT
Close to 1,000 supporters of popular former prime minister and cricket star Imran Khan have been arrested in Pakistan.
This in connection with a deadly demonstration demanding that Khan, who is in prison, be released.
The information about the arrests comes from Islamabad’s police chief Ali Nasir Rizvi, who adds that the majority were made during the day of Tuesday. A few hours later, it was announced that the activists were gone from the city center, where they tried to occupy a square by the parliament, after security forces attacked them with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The protesters are said to have numbered more than 10,000. They defied cordons and a temporary ban on public gatherings as they marched on Islamabad over the weekend, led by Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi.
At least six people are reported to have died in protest-related violence in recent days: Four members of the security forces and a civilian died when they were hit by a vehicle, and in a separate incident, a police officer died. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has condemned the demonstration and claims that an “anarchist group” targeted, among other things, police officers.
Both Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have urged calm.
Charismatic former cricket star Imran Khan heads the PTI party. He has been in prison for over a year, for corruption among other things, and was banned from standing in the February election.