ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested Tuesday as he appeared in court to face charges in multiple counts of bribery, a dramatic escalation in political tensions in the country that sparked demonstrations by his supporters in at least three cities.
Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 but remains the leading opposition figure, was dragged out of Islamabad High Court by National Accountability Bureau security agents, said Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Khan was pushed into an armored car and thrown away.
Chaudhry denounced the arrest of the 71-year-old former cricketer as a “kidnapping”. Pakistan’s independent GEO TV broadcast video of Khan being dragged away.
A scuffle broke out between Khan’s supporters and the police outside the court. Some of Khan’s lawyers and supporters were injured in the melee, as were several police officers, Chaudhry said. Khan’s party complained to the court, which requested a police report detailing the charges behind Khan’s arrest.
According to police and government officials, Khan was taken to the garrison town of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, for questioning at the offices of the National Accountability Bureau. He was also scheduled to undergo a routine medical check-up, police said.
Khan had come to the Islamabad High Court from nearby Lahore, where he lives, to face indictment in the transplant cases.
He has denounced the charges against him, including terrorism charges, as a politically motivated conspiracy by his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and said his ouster was illegal and a Western conspiracy. Khan has campaigned against Sharif and called for early elections.
Tuesday’s arrest was based on a new National Accountability Bureau warrant obtained last week in a separate transplant case for which Khan failed to obtain bail, leaving him vulnerable to arrest. He is scheduled to appear before an anti-graft tribunal on Wednesday, officials said.
“Imran Khan was arrested because he was wanted in a transplant case,” Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said at a news conference. He claimed the Pakistani treasury lost millions of dollars while Khan was in office due to illegal land purchases from a business tycoon.
As news of the arrest spread, some 4,000 of Khan’s supporters stormed the supreme regional commander’s official residence in Lahore, smashing windows and doors, damaging furniture and staging a sit-in as troops retreated there to avoid violence. The protesters also set fire to police vehicles and blocked major roads.
Protesters also smashed the main gate of the army headquarters in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, where troops were exercising restraint. Hundreds of protesters shouted pro-Khan slogans as they moved toward the sprawling building.
In the port city of Karachi, police wielded batons and fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Khan supporters who had gathered on a key street.
Raoof Hasan, another leader of Khan’s party, told English television Al Jazeera that the arrest was “blatant interference by those in power in judicial affairs”. Hasan added that Khan was “literally kidnapped by the court.”
Khan’s arrest came hours after he sent a video message ahead of his trip to Islamabad, saying he was “mentally prepared” to be arrested there.
Khan was wounded by a gunman at a rally in November, killing one of his supporters and wounding 13. He has insisted without evidence that there was a plot to assassinate him, claiming that the Pakistani espionage agency was behind it. The gunman was arrested immediately and police later released video of him in custody allegedly claiming he acted alone.
In a strongly worded statement Monday, the military accused Khan of “fabricated and malicious allegations” of his involvement in the November shootings, saying they were “extremely unfortunate, regrettable and unacceptable.”
The military has ruled Pakistan directly for more than half of the 75 years since the country gained independence from British colonial rule, wielding considerable power over civilian governments.
Sharif, whose government is facing mounting economic woes and struggling to recover from last year’s devastating floods that killed hundreds and caused $30 billion in damage, suggested Khan because he attacked by the military.
“Let this be abundantly clear that as a former prime minister currently on trial for corruption, you are claiming legitimacy to overthrow the legal and political system,” Sharif tweeted after Khan’s arrest.
Khan is the seventh former prime minister to be arrested in Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was arrested and hanged in 1979. The current prime minister’s brother, Nawaz Sharif, who also served as prime minister, has been arrested several times on corruption charges.
In March, police raided Khan’s home in Lahore to arrest him on a separate case, following a court order. Dozens of people, including police officers, were injured in the ensuing clashes. Khan was not arrested at the time and later received bail in the case.
Khan came to power in 2018 after winning general elections and initially had good relations with the military, which gradually deteriorated.