KARACHI: Police on Friday briefly detained several supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan after they clashed with the law enforcers, a police official and members of Khan’s party said, amid a protest close to the southern port city’s Red Zone that is home to key government and military offices.
Khan was shot in the leg on Thursday as he waved to supporters in Wazirabad city from atop a truck-mounted container during his anti-government protest march to the capital, which he began from Lahore on October 28. The former premier, who is demanding early elections, has postponed the march until his recovery.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party gave a call for nationwide protests after the Friday prayers, which was followed by major demonstrations in multiple cities.
In Karachi, the PTI Sindh chapter held a protest at the Insaf House, the party’s provincial headquarters off Shahrah-e-Faisal, a main artery that connects airport with, hotels, and government and military offices in the Red Zone. The protesters later marched toward Bilawal House but the police stopped them few hundred meters from the army’s Corps Headquarters and other important military installations.
“Police stopped PTI supporters from advancing to Red Zone which is our duty, but as they continued to violate the instructions, we took steps to disperse them,” Asad Raza, a senior police officer, told Arab News.
“Twenty people have been arrested.”
The law enforcers also baton-charged and tear-gassed the protesters in an effort to disperse them.
Haleem Adil Sheikh, PTI’s opposition leader in the Sindh provincial assembly, later told Arab News the police had released all of their members and supporters.
“Police had detained eleven workers, including Sindh Assembly member Raja Azhar, who have been released,” Shaikh said.
He said the provincial lawmaker was injured after a tear-gas shell hit him.