Imran khan pakistan arrested

May 9 (Reuters) - Pakistan's anti-corruption agency arrested former prime minister Imran Khan at Islamabad High Court on Tuesday, threatening fresh turmoil in the Khan's arrest comes a day after the powerful military rebuked him for repeatedly accusing a senior military officer of trying to engineer his assassination and the former armed forces chief of being behind his removal from power last year. Dozens of paramilitary troops in riot-control gear surrounded Khan - Pakistan's most popular leader according to opinion polls - and led him into a black van by his arm. Authorities in three of Pakistan's four provinces imposed an emergency order banning all gatherings after Khan's supporters clashed with police, blocked major roads in a string of cities and stormed military buildings in Lahore and Rawalpindi, according to witnesses and videos shared by his party. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos. The military's public relations wing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The clashes killed one of the protesters and injured 12 people, including six police officers in the southern city of Quetta, provincial home minister Ziaullah Langove said. Pakistan's telecommunications watchdog told Reuters that mobile data services were being suspended on interior ministry orders, while Netblocks, a global internet monitor, said access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube had been restricted. Khan, 70, a His arrest came at a time when Pakistan...

Pakistan opposition leader Imran Khan will appear at an anti-graft tribunal Wednesday after his dramatic arrest sparked violent clashes and prompted his supporters to protest outside the military’s headquarters. Khan was arrested Tuesday by paramilitary troops on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau, an autonomous anti-graft agency, in relation to a case involving a land deal. He was moved to its headquarters in the garrison town of Rawalpindi for questioning late into the night as angry protests erupted across Pakistan. The Islamabad High Court said late Tuesday that the arrest was legal, according Khan’s lawyer, Intazar Hussain Panjutha. Khan’s legal team intends to challenge his detention and any request from the NAB to keep him in custody, Panjutha added. The arrest came a day after Pakistan’s military issued a rare statement blasting Khan for repeating allegations that a senior military officer was behind his assassination attempt last year. The 70-year-old former cricket star has regularly criticized members of the military, Pakistan’s most powerful institution, since he was ousted as prime minister in April last year. A prolonged detention for Khan, whose popularity has been surging ahead of an election that must be called by mid-August, threatens to destabilize Pakistan just as it looks to secure more cash from the International Monetary Fund to avoid default. The benchmark KSE-100 Index fell by 1.1% on Tuesday, the most in almost seven weeks. Economic ...

Khan was dragged outside the Islamabad High Court and pushed into a police vehicle by agents from the National Accountability Bureau, according to Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Chaudhry denounced the arrest as “an abduction.” Pakistan’s independent GEO TV broadcast images of the 72-year-old Khan being pulled by security forces towards an armored vehicle, which took him away. Security personnel escort a car carrying Khan as he arrives at the high court in Islamabad on Tuesday. Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. He has claimed his ouster was illegal and a Western conspiracy and has campaigned against the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, demanding early elections. After Khan was taken away, a scuffle broke out between Khan’s supporters and police outside the court. Chaudhry said some of Khan’s lawyers and supporters were injured in the scuffle, as were several policemen. 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. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Khan would be brou...