Pakistani police regain control of Zaman Park where former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s residence is located

LAHORE: Authorities in Pakistan’s Punjab province took full control of the area surrounding Imran Khan’s residence here on Saturday, months after furious supporters of the ousted prime minister began camping there to thwart the arrest of their leader in the Toshakhana corruption case.
Punjab police met Khan, the chairman of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, on Friday to arrest ‘terrorists’ allegedly hiding there and handed him a list of 2,200 suspects involved in the protests. of 9 May which aimed military facilities and government buildings.
Lahore Police on Saturday removed pickets, bunkers, protest camps, tents and speed breakers around Khan’s Zaman Park residence here.
“We took full security control of Zaman Park as none of the Khan Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) employees were present outside his residence,” the government’s information minister told media. Punjab, Amir Mir.
The only thing left now is to raid Khan’s premises, Mir said.
The Minister claimed that the President of the PTI remained defiant and refused to allow the police to search his residence.
“We will soon decide how to proceed on this file,” he said.
Khan, 70, maintained he had no qualms about security agencies carrying out a search operation at his home, but said it should be done within guidelines set by the Lahore High Court.
In March, clashes erupted between law enforcement and Khan’s supporters, who had taken full control of Zaman Park to thwart any attempts to arrest Khan in the Toshakhana case.
The Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores valuable gifts given to leaders, parliamentarians, bureaucrats and civil servants by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.
Khan was later arrested by Pakistan Rangers paramilitaries at the High Court premises in Islamabad on May 9, sparking unrest across the country.
For the first time in Pakistan’s history, protesters stormed the army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and also burned down the house of a corps commander in Lahore.
A delegation consisting of Lahore Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa, Lahore Deputy Commissioner Rafia Haider and DIG Operations Sadiq Dogar visited Khan, his residence in Zaman Park and held a 90-minute meeting with him.
They handed over the names of those involved in the attack on the Lahore Corps Commander’s House and Askari Tower and evidence was handed over to him.
Mir said the former prime minister had received a list of 2,200 “wanted people” involved in attacks on military installations during the May 9 violence, saying those people had been found via geofencing.
“Among those people are also people from his family who were on the list,” he told Geo News.
Some of these people, according to Mir, were named in the list, including Khan’s nephew Hassan Niazi and his cousin Zubair Niazi.
On Wednesday, the Punjab government claimed “30 to 40 terrorists were hiding inside Khan’s residence” and gave his party a 24-hour ultimatum to hand over the disbelievers.
However, no action was taken after the deadline expired on Thursday.
A terrorism court on Friday approved Khan’s pre-arrest bail until June 2 in three terrorism cases filed against the former Pakistani prime minister following violence that erupted after his arrest on June 9. may.
Police have killed 10 people in violent clashes, while Khan’s party says 40 of its staff lost their lives in gunfire from security personnel.
On Monday, senior army officers pledged to bring to justice the arsonists who attacked civilian and military facilities through a trial under the country’s relevant laws, including the Pakistan Army Act and the Official Secrets Act.
Law enforcement arrested more than 7,000 PTI workers across Pakistan, including 4,000 from Punjab.
Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, was ousted from power in April last year after losing a vote of no confidence in his leadership, which he said was part of a plot led by the United States targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia. , China and Afghanistan.

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