Pakistani police launch crackdown on supporters of former PM Khan

dpa Islamabad Pakistani police have arrested hundreds of workers from the party of defiant ex-premier Imran Khan in a crackdown that is seen as a blatant ...

dpa IslamabadPakistani police have arrested hundreds of workers from the party of defiant ex-premier Imran Khan in a crackdown that is seen as a blatant attempt to thwart their planned protest aimed at toppling the new government.“[The police] raided the houses of over 1,100 party workers and leaders after midnight,” Fawad Chaudhry, Khan’s close aide and former information minister, told dpa on Tuesday.Chaudhry said that the crackdown was still going on and that party’s senior leadership was “safe.” More than 400 workers and leaders have been arrested, he said.Social media is flooded with videos showing policemen entering Pakistan Movement for Justice (PTI) workers’ homes and allegedly harassing their family members.A policeman was killed in the eastern city of Lahore during one such raid at the residence of a PTI leader.The incident prompted the Punjab government to impose a colonial-era law that prohibits the assembly of four or more people.Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the killing had proved that the PTI’s protest was not “peaceful.” Meanwhile, Islamabad’s High Court asked the government to make sure that no one is harassed needlessly.Special security arrangements have been made in the capital where all roads leading to parliament have been blocked with shipping containers, barbed wire and 22,000 security personnel.