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In many cities of Pakistan there were large and violent protests by supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, after the latter was arrested on Tuesday on a corruption charge: according to his supporters, Khan would be the victim of persecution policy by the Pakistani government.
Protests began immediately after the arrest and continued well into the night: the most popular ones took place in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta, where protesters blocked the roads setting fire to tires and clashed with the police . In Quetta there was also one death among the demonstrators, as well as several injuries. Meanwhile, in an effort to restore calm and bring the protests under control, Pakistan’s authorities have restricted access to social networking sites across much of the country and cut off internet access altogether in many regions, according to the report. independent NetBlocks observatory.
Khan’s arrest is the culmination of a political crisis that has been going on for many months in Pakistan. Khan, who is 70 years old, is a former cricket champion and is the most famous and popular politician in the country: he was elected prime minister in 2018 with the Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI), a nationalist and populist party founded in 1996 , and disheartened in April 2022.
At the time Khan claimed to be the victim of a conspiracy hatched by the army, which has considerable political influence in Pakistan, especially as regards security and foreign policy, and which in 2018 had contributed with its support to the victory of the elections.
At the time of his arrest, Khan had voluntarily presented himself in an Islamabad court to testify in a trial in which he is accused of fraud and corruption. Khan was accused in October of failing to declare some gifts received from foreign officials during his tenure and subsequently reselling others. On two occasions the police had tried to arrest him before Tuesday: the first time, on March 5, she had presented herself at his private residence, without finding him; while on 15 March she failed due to the protests of his supporters.
⚠️ Update: In addition to social media restrictions, real-time network data show that total internet shutdowns are now in effect in some regions of #Pakistan; the disruptions have been imposed amid the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan
📰 Report: pic.twitter.com/TvVCxd9btm
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) May 9, 2023