(15 Mar 2023)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4424284

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lahore, Pakistan - 15 March 2023
1. Wide of police marching toward former Prime Minister Imran Khan's residence
HEADLINE: Clashes as Pakistan police try to arrest Imran Khan
2. Police firing tear gas toward supporters
3. Supporter being escorted away by police
ANNOTATION: Police officers are clashing with supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan outside his home in Lahore.

4. Police marching toward Khan's residence
5. Police using water cannon to disperse supporters
ANNOTATION: The chaos first started earlier in the week after the officers tried to arrest the ousted premier for failing to appear in court on graft charges.

6. Supporters throwing stones toward police
7. Police firing tear gas toward supporters
ANNOTATION: Khan's supporters are seen here throwing bricks at police who fight back with clubs and tear gas.

8. Police officer with megaphone
9. Mid of students putting on masks
ANNOTATION: On Tuesday, about a dozen police officers and 35 supporters were injured as tear gas shells and pieces of bricks littered the pavement.

10. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Ali Jan, supporter:
“They (the police) is here to arrest Imran Khan. No one can arrest Imran Khan. We stand with Imran Khan and the Punjab police cannot do anything to Imran Khan.”
11. Wide of vehicle on fire
12. Wide of water cannon spraying water
ANNOTATION: Similar violence also erupted in cities including Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta.
STORYLINE:
Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan threw bricks at police who fought back with clubs and tear gas for a second day on Wednesday after officers tried to arrest the ousted premier for failing to appear in court on graft charges.

Police have besieged the 70-year-old opposition leader’s house in the eastern city of Lahore since Tuesday as his supporters hurled rocks and bricks, and swung batons snatched from the officers.

The government has since sent additional police to Lahore's upscale area of Zaman Park, where Khan lives.

Khan’s supporters near his residence faced tear gas and police batons through the night to save him from arrest.

He said he was ready to travel to Islamabad on March 18 under his arrest warrant, but that police did not accept the offer.

By around 2 p.m., the clashes subsided and police stepped back, apparently in an effort to ease the tensions.

This encouraged more Khan supporters to join those outside and inside his home as the situation calmed.

Officials said security forces were told to move back from Khan’s house while the court in the capital, Islamabad, considered whether to suspend the warrant.

The Punjab provincial government said on Wednesday that more than 100 police officers were injured in clashes with Khan’s supporters.

They denied Khan's allegation that officers were using live ammunition.

Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament last year, went to Islamabad to appear before three courts last week, but he failed to appear before the fourth court to face indictment in a graft case, which is a legal process for starting his trial.

Khan has claimed that the string of cases against him, which includes terrorism charges, are a plot by the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to discredit the former cricket star turned Islamist politician.

Violence was also reported between Khan's supporters and police in other major cities, including Karachi, Islamabad, the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan.



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