Imran Khan's supporter killed in crackdown in Pakistan's Punjab province, party claims

Lahore: A supporter of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan was killed on Thursday while dozens others arrested in Pakistan’s Punjab province during a fresh crackdown ahead of his party planned demonstrations next month, PTI claimed.

The Punjab police denied arresting anyone and also that it had any role in the death of the supporter of Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Khan's party has already announced a massive demonstration on February 8 to protest its “stolen mandate” in the general polls two years ago.

The PTI and Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan (TTAP) said that one worker of PTI was killed and dozens of others were arrested by the Punjab police on Thursday during their “street mobilisation campaign” against the incumbent government, which “is backed by the military establishment.” Khan, 73, has been incarcerated since August 2023, when he was arrested for the first time. Multiple cases have been registered against Khan after his government was toppled in April 2022.

His party has launched multiple demonstrations demanding his release and this latest comes to protest the anniversary of February 8 “mandate thieves.” A statement from the PTI on Thursday said that its worker, Rashid Yousef Jan, died when the police raided his house to arrest him in Lahore. “During his arrest , the police manhandled Jan whose condition deteriorated. He was shifted to a hospital where doctors could not save his life,” the PTI said and also issued a picture of Jan.

“Dozens of workers and leaders of the Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM), an ally of the PTI, were arrested in Lahore,” TTAP head Mahmood Khan Achakzai said in a statement.

Those arrested included MWM's Senior Vice President Syed Hussain Kazmi and the son of MWM chief Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, who is the TTAP vice chairman, he said.

The Punjab government of Maryam Nawaz has unleashed police on the workers of the PTI who are raiding and violating the sanctity of four walls with impunity, he claimed. “The fascism and oppression by the Punjab police continues as they arrested several members of the PTI and TTAP caravan coming to Lahore from Islamabad on Thursday.” “Peaceful citizens and party workers, who are unarmed and pose no threat of any kind, are being subjected to extremely brutal behaviour by the fascist police acting on political orders,” the PTI statement lambasted.

It further said that the PTI ticket holders, organisational officials and workers were also arrested from Gujar Khan, some 200 kms from Lahore, in a brutal fashion.

“The PTI and TTAP protesters were first surrounded and stopped on their way to Lahore from Islamabad. Their vehicles were attacked, windshields were broken by the police personnel and when a peaceful protest was staged, violence was perpetrated against unarmed citizens,” the PTI said.

The Punjab police, however, said in a statement that they haven’t arrested the PTI and its allies' workers nor do they have any role in the death of Rashid Yousuf Jan.

Meanwhile, as the TTAP leadership reached Lahore on Thursday evening, the police blocked routes to the residences of Khan and his sisters in Zaman Park.

After the February 8 general elections in 2024, Khan had called the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as 'mandate thieves' alleging that they stole his party's seats by manipulating results to come to power.