According to his political party, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested by paramilitary Rangers on Tuesday while he was attending a hearing for a corruption case at the Islamabad High Court.
The chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had traveled from Lahore to Islamabad and was taken into custody by the Rangers on charges of corruption, as confirmed by his lawyer Faisal Chaudhry.
The PTI party, which Khan leads, issued a brief statement confirming his arrest on anti-graft charges related to the Al-Qadeer trust case. Khan, who is 70 years old, is a former cricket player who turned to politics.
Khan’s arrest occurred the day after the Pakistani army accused him of making unfounded accusations against a high-ranking army official.
The PTI claimed that Khan was subjected to torture while in custody, but independent confirmation of these allegations is currently unavailable.
“State terrorism – breaking into IHC premises to abduct Imran Khan from court premises. Law of the jungle in operation. Rangers beat the lawyers, used violence on Imran Khan, and abducted him,” tweeted former minister Shireen Mazari, a PTI spokeswoman.
According to PTI leader Azhar Mashwani, Khan was “abducted” by the Rangers from within the court. Mashwani further claimed that the party had issued an immediate call for nationwide protests in response to the arrest.
“They are torturing Imran Khan right now […] they are beating Khan sahib. They have done something with Khan sahib,” Cheema said in a video message posted on the party’s Twitter handle.
Former information minister and PTI Vice President Fawad Chaudhry earlier said the court has been “occupied by the Rangers” and lawyers “are being subjected to torture”.
“Imran Khan’s car has been surrounded,” he added.
Khan has been facing a slew of cases since his ouster through a no-trust vote in April last year. He has rejected all these cases as political victimization by the ruling alliance.