By Agencies
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was Tuesday arrested by paramilitary officers outside the High Court in the capital Islamabad.
Mr. Khan was appearing in court on charges of corruption, which he says are politically motivated.
Reports said Mr. Khan was detained by forces in armored personnel carriers after entering the court compound.
He was ousted as PM in April last year and has been campaigning for early elections since then.
Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said the 72-year-old was arrested on the premises of the court by agents from the country’s anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau.
PTI leader Musarrat Cheema, alleged in a video message on Twitter: “They are torturing Imran Khan right now.”
The PTI is the party Khan founded in 1996 and he served as the country’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022 before being ousted.
Khan’s party immediately complained to the Islamabad High Court, which requested a police report explaining the charges for Khan’s arrest.
Officials from the anti-corruption body said that Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau had issued arrest warrants for Khan last week in a separate graft case, for which he had not obtained bail — something that would protect him from arrest under the country’s laws.
Dr. Akbar Nasir Khan, Inspector General of Police in Islamabad, said that Khan was arrested in the Al-Qadir Trust case, adding that the situation is under control.
Chaudhry said Khan was dragged out of the court and into a police vehicle and that he is now in the custody of the security forces.
He denounced the arrest as “an abduction.”
Pakistan’s independent GEO TV broadcast images of Khan being pulled by security forces towards an armored vehicle and another video posted on Twitter shows his lawyer covered in blood.
