Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan arrested for corruption, violence erupts across the country

(Patria) - Pakistan's anti-corruption agency arrested former Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Khan's arrest followed a day after the army rebuked him for repeatedly accusing a senior military official of attempting to orchestrate his assassination and the former army chief of standing behind his removal from power last year.

Dozens of security forces surrounded Khan, Pakistan's most popular leader according to polls, and led him into a black van. Authorities in three of Pakistan's four provinces imposed an emergency order banning all gatherings after Khan's supporters clashed with police, blocked main roads in a number of cities, and broke into military buildings in Lahore and Rawalpindi, according to witnesses and videos shared by his party. One protester was killed and 12 people were injured, including six police officers, in clashes in the southern city of Quetta, provincial Interior Minister Ziaullah Langove said.

Pakistan's telecommunications regulator told Reuters that mobile data services were suspended by order of the interior ministry, while Netblocks, a global internet monitor, said access to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube was restricted.

Khan (70), a cricket hero turned politician, has shown no signs of slowing down since being ousted as prime minister in April 2022 in a parliamentary no-confidence vote, even after being injured in November in an attack on his convoy while leading a protest march to Islamabad calling for early general elections. His arrest came at a time when Pakistanis are facing the worst economic crisis in decades, with record high inflation and slow growth. An International Monetary Fund aid package has been delayed for months, and foreign exchange reserves are barely enough to cover a month's imports.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said Khan was arrested after ignoring notices to surrender. He says Khan and his wife are accused of receiving land worth up to $24.7 million from an investor accused of money laundering in Britain while he was still prime minister. Sanaullah added that British authorities returned $240 million to Pakistan in connection with money laundering, but Khan returned the money to the investor instead of keeping it in the state treasury.

"Khan is accused of committing the criminal offense of corruption and corrupt practices," the NAB statement said. Khan has denied any wrongdoing.

GEO TV reported that he would be brought before an anti-corruption court on Wednesday. The corruption case is one of more than 100 registered against Khan since his ouster after four years in power. In most cases, Khan faces a ban from holding public office if convicted, and national elections are scheduled for November.

Khan's Pakistani Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party called on supporters to "shut down Pakistan" over his arrest. PTI tweeted: "It's your time, people of Pakistan. Khan has always stood up for you, now it's time to stand up for him."

Hundreds of Khan's supporters blocked streets in cities and major highways across the country, including in Khan's hometown of Lahore and in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where police were on alert and banned public gatherings.

Protesters also blocked main roads in the port city of Karachi, and police fired tear gas at protesters in the capital, Islamabad. Previous attempts to arrest Khan from his Lahore home have resulted in clashes between his supporters and the police. Political clashes are common in Pakistan, where no prime minister has yet completed a full term and where the military has ruled for nearly half of the country's history. Khan reiterated his accusations against the military on Tuesday, adding that the same senior official, Major General Faisal Naseer of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was behind the assassination of a prominent Pakistani journalist in Kenya in October. The army has denied Khan's allegations.