Moment former Pakistan PM Imran Khan is arrested and bundled into truck by swarm of riots cops after court appearance
THIS is the moment former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested and bundled into a truck by riot cops.
Dramatic footage shows the ex-cricket star, 70, surrounded by bat-wielding security forces following a scheduled court appearance.
His lawyer is understood to have been badly injured during the arrest in Islamabad as Khan was escorted to a waiting truck by a huge crowd of cops dressed in riot gear.
Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, said Khan was arrested on the premises of the court by agents from the country’s anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau.
Chaudhry said Khan was dragged out of the court and into a police vehicle.
Denouncing the arrest as an “abduction”, Chaudhry added that the former premier is now in the custody of the security forces.
Khan was ousted in a no-confidence in April 2022, after serving as Prime Minister of Pakistan for almost two years.
He has claimed his ouster was illegal and a Western conspiracy and has campaigned against the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, demanding early elections.
Khan’s party immediately complained to the Islamabad High Court, which requested a police report explaining the charges for Khan’s arrest.
Officials from the anti-corruption body said that Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau had issued arrest warrants for Khan last week in a separate graft case, for which he had not obtained bail.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Khan will be brought to appear before an anti-graft tribunal later on Tuesday.
Khan had arrived in Islamabad earlier in the day from the nearby city of Lahore, where he lives, to face charges in multiple graft cases against him.
He has claimed that the string of cases against him, which include terrorism charges, is a plot by Sharif’s government to discredit him.
Khan’s arrest comes just months after he survived an assassination attempt when a hail of gunfire ripped through his convoy during a rally in Wazirabad.
The cricket legend said he was saved by a hero who went to grab a gun from the hands of a would-be assassin.
He told Piers Morgan’s ‘Uncensored’ show on TalkTV that he owes his life to a quick-thinking bystander when gunmen opened fire, hitting him in the leg.
Before going into politics, Khan was an integral part of Pakistan’s international cricket side after developing into one of the world’s fastest bowlers.
He became captain of the international team in 1982 at the age of 30, and led Pakistan in 48 Test matches, inspiring his side to their first-ever win at Lords.
By the time he retired in 1992, Khan had scored 3807 Test runs at an average of 37.69 and 362 wickets at 22.81.