In blow to Imran Khan, Lahore police cracks down on supporters ahead of rally

Pakistani Punjab’s caretaker government imposed Section 144 beginning today, banning all rallies, protests and marches for a week in Lahore. It mentioned the “security situation” in the country due to “terrorism and threat alerts” as well as disruption of traffic for banning public gatherings.

With Section 144 in force, leaders or people’s groups will not be able to hold any kind of gatherings in the city, dealing a big blow to Imran Khan ahead of his show of strength.

Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, was besieged with two protests – one called by former prime minister Imran Khan and the other by women’s groups on the International women’s Day. Supporters of Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had begun pouring into Lahore.

The police put up barricades and closed many roads. The police also resorted to firing by water cannons on the former prime minister’s supporters. Media reports said that PTI workers were being arrested by the police. At places, the police even broke the windscreens of the cars.

With elections for Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces round the corner, Khan had promised a historic public rally in Lahore to kickstart his campaign. He had planned to come into the rally in a bulletproof vehicle citing threats to his life.

Khan had earlier announced a Jail Bharo campaign and some of his supporters did offer themselves to the police for arrest. However, when the police went to Khan’s Lahore residence at Zaman Park to arrest him, Khan slipped into a neighbour’s house to evade arrest. Pakistani Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah claimed that when the police went to arrest Khan, he had climbed a wall to the neighbour’s house and escaped.

The PTI leader said that his party had launched its election campaign with barely 55 days left for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Criticising the government’s action in curbing his public rally, he tweeted: “Under what law and in brazen contempt of the Supreme Court, the Punjab caretaker government uses massive police violence against unarmed workers to stop our planned rally?”

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