Supporters of Pak ex-PM Khan call for countrywide shutdown in protest against his arrest

Islamabad: Pakistan is bracing for another day of violence that broke out in many cities after the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan for alleged corruption with the leaders of his party announcing a countrywide strike on Wednesday to protest against the government.

Khan was arrested from the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday by Pakistan's anti-corruption agency.

PAKISTAN-POLITICS-KHAN-INTERVIEW — Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. Photo: Reuters/Akhtar Soomro

Khan will not be brought to court and his scheduled hearing will take place at the location where he is being held under custody. Police said a court hearing would take place at the police guest house where he is being held.

The arrest came a day after the country's powerful military rebuked Khan for repeatedly accusing a senior military officer of trying to engineer his assassination and the former armed forces chief of being behind his removal from power last year.

In response, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party called for a "shut down" across the country, with Khan's supporters clashing with police in many cities and storming military buildings in Lahore and Rawalpindi, according to witnesses and videos shared by his party.

PAKISTAN-POLITICS-KHAN — A traffic police officer walks amid damages of a check post, that was set afire by the supporters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, during a protest against his arrest, in Karachi. Photo: Reuters/Akhtar Soomro

Supporters in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were asked to gather early on Wednesday in Swabi city to leave for Islamabad as part of a convoy, the party wrote on Twitter.

Party leaders asked workers to continue protests but not take the "law in their hands", according to messages shared on Twitter by on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, protests broke out in the country as the news of Khan's arrest went viral, with his supporters armed with batons targeting the installations of security institutions, including the General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army.

They paid no heed to the imposition of Section 144 that outlawed gatherings in Punjab, Balochistan and major places in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Some of the worst incidents of violence and vandalism were reported from Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Karachi and Rawalpindi.

According to a media, at least two deaths and dozens of injuries of its workers in clashes with law enforcement agencies.

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