Islamabad –
Pakistani police on Monday arrested a former army general and a prominent supporter of former prime minister Imran Khan on charges of agitating citizens and government officials against state institutions, officials said.
The indictment against retired General Amjad Shoaib came after he appeared on Pakistan’s BOL news channel on Saturday, criticizing authorities for continuing to imprison Khan supporters, especially in remote parts of the country.
They were arrested during Khan’s latest campaign called “filling prison cells with detainees” (“jail baro” in Urdu) as a way to pressure the government to hold early elections. rice field.
Last Wednesday in Lahore, the former prime minister’s hometown, and in several other urban areas, Khan’s supporters protested, jumping into police vans, posing for cameras, and mocking the police in unison. and defied a ban on gatherings.
Police were mostly absent, but at least 200 Khan supporters were arrested in various parts of eastern Punjab and elsewhere. This is exactly what the Khan supporters want.
In a television appearance, Shoaib is said to have urged civil servants to refuse their duties. The charges against him allege that Shoaib’s statements were part of a “planned conspiracy” to undermine the country.
Fawad Chowdhury, senior leader of Khan’s Pakistan Teherik-e-Insakh opposition party, condemned the arrest of 80-year-old Shoaib, saying such actions “only bring hate and insecurity”.
Shahbaz Sharif has succeeded Khan as prime minister after the former cricket star turned Islamist politician in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022.
Since then, Khan, who claims his deportation was a US-backed conspiracy, has called for early elections. , said the vote would take place later this year as planned.
The Sharif government has not only suffered from prolonged political instability, but has also witnessed a surge in militant attacks and violence across the country over the past few months.
Suspected militants killed four workers and injured three others at a coal mine in southwestern Pakistan on Monday, said police official Syed Akbar. No one claimed responsibility for the attack in Harnai, a district of the rebellious Balochistan state that is home to most of the coal mines in the region.
Separately, two soldiers and two militants were killed in a shootout after an attack in North Waziristan, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said. Waziristan was a Taliban base in Pakistan until the military claimed to have cleared the region of militants. But attacks continue, raising fears that the Pakistani Taliban are regrouping there.
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Associated Press writer Abdul Satar contributed to this article from Quetta, Pakistan.
