Lahore:
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday called for nationwide “freedom protests” after his brief arrest and detention last week sparked deadly unrest.
The former cricket superstar, who has been embroiled in dozens of court cases since his ouster last April, was released on bail on Friday after his detention was declared illegal by the Supreme Court.
Enraged by the arrest, supporters set fire to government buildings, blocked roads and damaged military property, which they blame for Khan’s downfall.
“Freedom doesn’t come easy. You have to grab it. You have to sacrifice for it,” he said in a speech broadcast on YouTube on Saturday night.
He called on his supporters to protest across the country on Sunday “at the end of your streets and villages”, announcing that he would campaign again for immediate elections on Wednesday.
Pakistani party leader Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been campaigning against the army for months now.
His arrest on Tuesday came just hours after he was reprimanded for alleging senior officials were involved in an assassination attempt against him last year.
Pakistan’s powerful military has ruled the country directly for nearly half of its 75-year history and continues to wield power over the political system.
“The army chief’s actions have made our army bad. It’s because of him, not me,” Khan said from his home in Lahore, though it was unclear whether he meant the serving chief, or his predecessor, who has detained Khan. responsible for his deposition.
He previously told reporters that “one man, the army chief” was behind his arrest.
But Khan distanced himself from the attacks on the military installations during the protests, denying involvement of his party associates and calling for an independent investigation into the violence.
The army, which denies Khan’s allegations, warned on Saturday of attempts to create “misconceptions” against the institution.
‘anti-state behaviour’
According to the police and hospitals, at least nine people were killed in the unrest last week.
Authorities said hundreds of police officers were injured and more than 4,000 people were detained, mostly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
At least 10 senior PTI leaders have been arrested since the protests began, one of Khan’s lawyers said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the head of a shaky coalition, warned on Saturday that those involved in “facilitating, inciting and perpetrating” the violence must be arrested within 72 hours.
“Those who engaged in anti-state behavior will be arrested and tried in anti-terrorist courts,” he said during a visit to Lahore.
Home Secretary Rana Sanaullah has vowed repeatedly that police will re-arrest Khan, who remains wildly popular in the run-up to October elections.
The Islamabad High Court ruled that Khan should be granted protection from arrest until Monday.
‘Everybody knows’
Khan won the 2018 election on an anti-corruption campaign, voted by an electorate weary of decades of dynastic politics.
Independent analysts say he came to power with the backing of the military before falling out with the generals.
“Everyone knows who it is. It’s the army behind (Khan’s arrest),” 21-year-old PTI supporter Mohsin Khan told AFP outside the party chief’s house.
The handcart seller added that he wanted the military and politicians to “work together”.
The political crisis has been simmering for months, with Khan trying to disrupt the coalition government by dissolving two provincial parliaments he controls and campaigning for snap elections.
Mobile data services and access to social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube, which were shut down shortly after Khan’s arrest on Tuesday, had been partially restored across the country as of Saturday.
The country now appears poised for an “increasingly uglier confrontation in the coming days and weeks,” according to an editorial in Dawn, the country’s leading English-language newspaper.
“None of the leaders, political or institutional, invested in this tug of war seem ready to step back,” it said.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)