Police officers patrol a road during a protest by the supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan against his arrest, in Peshawar, Pakistan. (Image: Reuters)
Shireen Mazari, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Fawad Chaudhry have been taken into custody because police believe they are inciting violence.
Police in Pakistan’s major cities, including capital Islamabad, invoked the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance and arrested several Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders. On Friday, senior leaders Yasmin Rashid and Shireen Mazari were also arrested.
Pakistani authorities also put leader Khalid Khurshid under house arrest. “Arrests had been made for inciting arson and violent protests under a thought-out plan for threatening peace,” Islamabad Police said in a statement.
It is unclear where these two leaders currently are kept by the law enforcement authorities.
A report by the Dawn said that senior leaders Asad Umar, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Ejaz Chaudhry, Qasim Suri, Ali Mohammad Khan and Fawad Chaudhry, also arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, were also arrested.
The report further pointed out that Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Maleeka Bukhari, Falak Naz and Jamshed Cheema and his wife were sent to jail along with over 150 members of the PTI. They will remain detained for one month.
The report said that the PTI top brass are kept in Adiala Jail.
Protesters from the party already attempted to storm the Pakistan Army headquarters in Rawalpindi earlier this week following Imran Khan’s arrest and the distance between both of these landmarks is roughly 15 kilometres.
Pakistan is on the boil following Imran Khan’s arrest.
The supreme court of Pakistan on Thursday said the arrest of the former prime minister from the court premises was illegal and ordered his immediate release but said he is not absolutely free and he will have to appear before the high court on Friday.
More than 11 people have died in the clashes that erupted in all major cities of Pakistan following Imran Khan’s arrest.
The chief justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial asked Imran Khan to order his party cadres to stop rioting and protest peacefully.
Imran Khan was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on graft-related charges in the Al-Qadir Trust Case earlier this week.
Following his arrest on Tuesday, Pakistan witnessed widespread violence on Wednesday and Thursday as public property was set ablaze, PTI workers clashed with police and the internet was shut down in order to diffuse tensions.
Pakistan is bracing for more unrest as Imran Khan appears in the Islamabad High Court.
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