Imran arrested, supporters storm army HQs

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday was arrested by paramilitary Rangers while he was present at the Islamabad High Court for the hearing of a corruption case, a day after he took on the country’s powerful army for allegedly hatching a plot to kill him.
His party confirmed the arrest of the 70-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician.
The arrest comes a day after the powerful army had accused Khan of levelling baseless allegations against a senior officer of the spy agency ISI.
The chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who travelled from Lahore to the federal capital Islamabad, was undergoing a biometric process at the court when the Rangers broke open the glass window and arrested him after beating lawyers and Khan’s security staff, according to senior party leader Shireen Mazari.
The PTI chief was arrested as part of NAB’s investigation in the Al-Qadir Trust case before his appearance before the Islamabad High Court to seek bail in multiple FIRs registered against him, Geo News reported.Rangers took Imran Khan away to NAB Rawalpindi in a black Toyota Hilux Vigo.“Mr Khan has been arrested in a land transfer case to property tycoon Malik Riaz and is being handed over to National Accountability Bureau (NAB)”, a NAB official confirmed.
He said that Khan has been arrested in the Al-Qadir Trust case. “His arrest warrants were issued today morning and subsequently he is arrested,” he said.
After the arrest, Imran’s barrister Ali Gohar alleged that Khan was beaten and sustained injuries and he (Gohar) too was tortured. Gohar also said that the former PM was kicked by the Rangers on his leg which was injured by a bullet earlier and he was even pepper-sprayed.
TV footage showed the Rangers grabbing Khan from the collar and bundling him into a prison van.
According to a report of Geo News, the barrister Ali Gohar added that he and Ali Bukhari were present with the PTI chief at the time of the arrest. “Imran Khan’s lawyer badly injured inside the premises of IHC. Black day for our democracy and country,” tweeted PTI.
He further said, “Rangers broke through the glass and entered the diary branch,” adding that the Rangers personnel broke IHC’s main gate before ransacking the IHC office.
Meanwhile, the PTI has denounced the arrest of the party chairman calling it an “abduction” by the law enforcement agency, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and appealed to the supporters and workers to stage protests across the country.
The former PM’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has also released several videos on Twitter claiming that Khan was manhandled, pushed and detained in a fascist move.
The Dawn newspaper reported that IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq directed the Islamabad police chief, the interior ministry secretary and the additional attorney general to appear before the court within 15 minutes.
Chief Justice Farooq said that he was showing “restraint” and warned that he would “summon” the prime minister if the Islamabad police chief did not appear before the court.
“Come to court and tell us why Imran has been arrested and in which case,” Justice Farooq was quoted as saying by the paper.
Islamabad police released a brief statement quoting Inspector General (IG) Akbar Nasir Khan as saying that Khan had been arrested in relation to the case which concerns allegations that Bahria Town allotted land worth Rs 530 million to Al-Qadir Trust, owned by the PTI chairman and his wife Bushra Bibi.