Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has accused police of violently detaining former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sisters outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi after authorities again denied them their weekly visit.
The party staged a protest and sit-in outside the prison, claiming jail officials refused to allow family members or workers to meet Khan in violation of a court order. PTI said Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan were “peacefully sitting” when police detained them.
According to PTI, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Minister Meena Khan Afridi, Member of National Assembly Shahid Khattak and other party leaders and workers, including women, were also subjected to violence. The sisters, accompanied by Khan’s legal team, reportedly waited for hours before being turned away.
Videos shared by PTI showed Aleema and Uzma gathered around a shaken Noreen, who later alleged female police officers pulled her by the hair and pushed her to the ground. “I didn't understand it. I still don't understand what happened,” she said.
In a statement, PTI condemned what it described as “inhumane, unlawful and disgraceful treatment.” The party alleged the Punjab government ordered an operation late at night, flooding the protest site and cutting the lights before police assaulted Khan’s sisters.
“This level of state oppression and cruelty represents an unprecedented assault on basic human dignity, constitutional freedoms, and moral norms,” PTI said.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi also criticised the police action, calling attempts to arrest MNA Shahid Khattak and other legislators “condemnable” and warning the situation was reaching “a point of no return.”
(Inputs from IANS)