By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Police on Monday arrested several top leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, including Raoof Hasan and Gohar Khan, from the party’s Islamabad office on Monday, police and party officials said.
Raoof Hasan, the party’s information secretary, was taken into custody, while Gohar Khan, PTI chairman and Imran Khan’s lawyer, was later released.
PTI social media accounts shared videos of dozens of policemen surrounding the party’s Islamabad secretariat on Monday morning, while visuals of Hasan being led away by police widely circulated online.
The government has accused the PTI of running an “international disinformation campaign” from its digital media center and has moved to ban the party.
“The PTI digital media centre had become a centre of international disinformation, from where anti-Pakistan propaganda is run throughout the world,” said police.
Police took a computer and some other equipment into custody as well from the party secretariat.
Police said those directly involved in the anti-national propaganda were arrested and all the evidence from the PTI’s digital media cell was taken into custody.
Taqi Jawad Islamabad police spokesperson said Barrister Gohar himself announced that he was not arrested by police and he is free, while Hasan was taken by security forces in a joint operation by the FIA and Islamabad police.
Gohar said he went along with Hasan to the Police Lines, however, the police said since the PTI chairman was not wanted in any case, he could leave.
The arrests come amid a widening crackdown on the PTI, with several party members detained in recent days, including Ahmed Waqqas Janjua, who was remanded into police custody for seven days by an anti-terrorism court.
Imran Khan, the former premier and PTI founder, has been in jail since August last year and faces multiple legal cases, which he claims are politically motivated.
The party condemned the arrests, saying “it’s absolutely shameful how Islamabad Police continues to completely mock and disregard every law in this country. Law of the jungle is reigning over Pakistan!”
“The struggle for true democracy and to ensure the rule of law will continue,” said Adviser to KPK chief minister on information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif.
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