ISLAMABAD: Nine aides of jailed ex-premier Imran Khan, including Shireen Mazari who was human rights minister during his tenure, were indicted on Monday in a case involving an attack last year on the military's headquarters (GHQ) by protesters linked to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party said.

The move comes after Khan was himself also indicted on Thursday on charges of inciting his supporters to attack GHQ on May 9, 2023. That day, after Pakistan's powerful military publicly rebuked the PTI founder for repeatedly accusing a senior military officer of trying to engineer his assassination, Khan was arrested by the national anti-corruption agency in a land graft case. The arrest sparked a wave of protests by Khan supporters across the country, with rioters attacking important state buildings and ransacking military facilities, including the GHQ in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and the residence of the army's top commander in the eastern city of Lahore. 

Hundreds of PTI supporters and dozens of leaders were subsequently arrested while police registered cases against the party's top leaders, including Khan.

“It’s good that things are going towards indictment,” the PTI said in a statement to reporters, confirming that nine people had been indicted in the GHQ case. 

“As they take the case to trial, then it will come out whether these accused people are actually involved, and they will get a way to fight these false charges through the legal and judicial system. Up until now, people were just being kept in custody and things were lingering on for a year and a half.”

Nearly 2,000 people were arrested following the May 9 protests and at least eight were killed. The government had called out the army to help restore order.

Though Khan was released on bail within days of the May 9 arrest, he was later arrested in August 2023 after he was handed a three-year prison sentence in a corruption case. He has been in jail since then.

His party was barred from Pakistan's election on Feb. 8, 2024, but the would-be candidates stood as independents.

Despite the ban and Khan's imprisonment for convictions on charges ranging from leaking state secrets to corruption, millions of the former cricketer's supporters voted for him. Independent candidates from his party won the highest number of seats but not enough to form a government on their own. Khan cannot be part of any government while he remains in prison.

Khan and his party say all legal cases against him are based on made-up charges to keep him out of politics at the behest of the army after he had fallen out with the military's generals. The army denies the accusation.