Imran Khan rally ends in violence
Riot police clash with supporters on way to star’s home
ISLAMABAD // Baton-wielding Pakistani riot police fired tear gas at fans of former cricketer Imran Khan yesterday as clashes broke out over a government ban on demonstrations.
The violence erupted as the crowd, supporters of Mr Khan’s Tehrik-e-Insaf opposition party, tried to get to his Islamabad home for a rally he called for the previous evening in defiance of the ban. The clash prompted Mr Khan to announce he would go ahead with a planned “million-man march” in the capital on Wednesday to call for prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation.
Mr Khan said he was not afraid of arrest.
“Even if you send me to jail, I will come back to lead rallies against you,” he said, addressing Mr Sharif.
He said police were not allowing him to leave his residence.
There were also skirmishes between Mr Khan’s supporters and police in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province.
Dozens of Tehrik-e-Insaf activists were detained across Pakistan.
Since members of Mr Sharif’s family were named as holders of offshore bank accounts in leaked financial documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, Mr Sharif has faced mounting public pressure to step down from his role.
The prime minister, serving his third term, has refused to quit but said he would face an investigation to prove he and his family were not involved in corruption. The supreme court has reportedly settled on a panel of judges who will hear the case on Mr Sharif’s family’s offshore accounts next week. Mr Khan’s party is one of the five petitioners that requested the court look into the scandal.
The court has asked Mr Sharif to issue a response to the allegations against him. Mr Khan held months- long rallies in Islamabad in 2014 to force Mr Sharif to resign over alleged rigging of national elections in 2013.
The former cricket star suspended his party’s protests after a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in December in which 150 people, mostly children, were killed.