Supporters rally at a jailed ex-prime minister in Pakistan despite police crackdown | News about protests

Demonstrators gather and demand the release of Imran Khan from prison, despite protests being banned and police cracking down.

Supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan have gathered in Islamabad to press for Khan’s release, while police blocked roads, shut down mobile internet and used tear gas to deter protesters.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) claimed on Saturday that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) party chief Ali Amin Gandapur was kidnapped and illegally detained. But Al Jazeera could not independently verify the claim.

Gandapur, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, led thousands of protesters camping on the Islamabad-Peshwar highway on Friday evening. When the police tried to enter the city, they used tea gases.

This is the latest in a series of protests by supporters of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which authorities are cracking down on.

The PTI, which says the protests in Islamabad are only for a day, also held a rally on Saturday in the eastern city of Lahore, where roads were closed.

“I am so proud of all of our people,” said a message from Khan posted on the social media site X on Saturday afternoon.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi accused the demonstrators of clashes with the police. “Over 80 police officers were injured in the clashes,” he said.

Naqvi had earlier asked the PTI to postpone any gathering until after diplomatic appointments in the city, including a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting on October 15 and 16 attended by delegations including from China, Russia and India become.

PTI activists began driving to Islamabad from its base in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday, but encountered roadblocks with shipping containers and volleys of tear gas.

Naqvi said authorities had information that the protesters were planning to disrupt the SCO conference to attract attention.

“We can’t allow that. I will tell them again: Don’t cross any more red lines – don’t force us to take extreme steps,” Naqvi said.

“Worrying approach”

Amnesty International said the communications restrictions and road blockades “violated people’s rights to freedom of expression, access to information, peaceful assembly and movement.”

“These restrictions are part of a worrying crackdown on the right to protest in Pakistan,” the human rights group said.

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Khan, 72, was prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote after falling out with the powerful military establishment, widely seen as Pakistan’s political kingmakers.

He was jailed on multiple charges in August last year. Although his convictions have been either overturned or suspended in most cases, he remains in prison and faces trial in other cases that he claims were staged to prevent his return to power.

Khan was barred from running in the February elections, which the PTI said were rigged. Several other countries had expressed “serious concerns” about the fairness of the vote, but electoral authorities in Pakistan have rejected the allegations.

Last month, several PTI MPs were arrested from the premises of the Pakistani Parliament.