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Lahore: Supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, arrested in a corruption case, attacked the Lahore residence of PM Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday (May 10). Police gave this information. According to the police, more than 500 miscreants of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party reached the prime minister’s residence in Model Town Lahore in the early hours of Wednesday and torched vehicles parked there.
A senior Punjab Police official said on Wednesday, “They (the rioters) also threw petrol bombs at the prime minister’s house.” The police officer told that at the time when the miscreants attacked, only the watchman was present at the Prime Minister’s residence. They also set a police post there on fire. “The PTI protesters left as soon as a police team reached there,” he added.
Before reaching the prime minister’s residence, a mob of Khan’s supporters attacked the ruling PML-N secretariat in Model Town, setting vehicles on fire. They also set the blockers there on fire.
On Wednesday itself, Pak PM Shahbaz Sharif condemned the violent protests by the supporters of Imran Khan and warned to deal strictly with the protesters. The Prime Minister gave a brief address to the nation after the deadly violence during the demonstrations taking place in the country. In the said violence, military installations were attacked and the country’s property was damaged.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said, “Attack on public property is an act of terrorism and enmity towards the country.” He said that those who take the law into their hands will be dealt with strictly. He said, “He will be punished in such a way that he sets an example.”
At the same time, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called on the authorities to respect due process and refrain from violence from all sides on the ongoing protests in the country after the arrest of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. Deputy spokesman for the secretary-general Farhan Haq said in a statement issued on Wednesday that Guterres urged the Pakistani authorities to respect the legal process in the proceedings against the country’s former prime minister.
Amid violent protests in Pakistan, a special court on Wednesday sent former PM Imran Khan to the remand of the anti-corruption agency for eight days, while a sessions court charged him in a separate corruption case. For the second consecutive day, protests against Imran’s arrest turned violent in different parts of the country, leaving at least seven people dead and the army being deployed in three provinces.
On Tuesday, on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the paramilitary force barged into a chamber of the Islamabad High Court and took 70-year-old Khan into custody.
