Pakistan’s Punjab province police have continued their probe against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers. The police arrested several activists and local leaders on Friday, Pakistan-based ARY News reported. Raids have been conducted by the police at PTI senior leader Mehtab Hussain’s residence in Lahore. During the raid, he was present at his home. Notably, these multiple raids on PTI members come after the march 18 clash between the Pakistan police and PTI workers.
Pakistan police crackdown over PTI workers
Apart from him, the police officers in Pakistan’s Multan have arrested the son of former MPA Javed Akhtar Ansari in a raid and other PTI workers across the province. According to the local news report, Arslan Butt’s residence, a former staff officer of Shahbaz Gill has also been searched by the police in Burewala but he was also not present at his home. During these multiple raids in Pakistan, several PTI workers have been arrested in different cities including Mian Channu, Lodhran, Vehari and Faisalabad.
So far, 316 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members have been arrested for allegedly assaulting police officials and causing a ruckus outside the Federal Judicial Complex (FJC) at the time of PTI Chief Imran Khan’s court hearing, reported Pakistan-based Dawn. On the day of the court hearing of the Toshakhana case on March 18, police and protesters clashed for hours. During that demonstration outside the Pakistan court, a contingent of law enforcers and PTI supporters used anti-riot gear against each other, including teargas shells which were being thrown by both sides in order to push back each other, as per local media reports. Reports of stone pelting, petrol bombs on the police, and setting vehicles on fire have also emerged in the confrontation.
According to Dawn, Islamabad has filed an FIR, including terrorism charges, against Khan and dozens of PTI leaders. Taking to social media, Punjab police have blamed Imran Khan’s PTI supporters for “incitement, arson, vandalism (and) attacks on police”. “Incitement of PTI protesters, arson, vandalism, attacks on police. Islamabad Capital Police has so far arrested 316 suspects in various operations. Police teams are raiding for more arrests. The process of identification of all the suspects involved in the incident with the help of cameras is also going on,” read the tweet poster by Police on Twitter.