At midnight on Tuesday, two days after the detention and eventual release of former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, police raided the houses of a number of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) figures in a domino effect.
In an apparent attempt to apprehend former finance minister Hammad Azhar, authorities stormed his residence in Lahore. The PTI leader’s mother recalled how the police force stormed into her house and intimidated her.
Azhar’s bodyguard also described how the cops reportedly assaulted him and insulted his martyred father.
Dr. Yasmin Rashid, the PTI’s leader, filmed the raid from outside Azhar’s house.
The police were stationed outside former interior minister Sheikh Rashid’s residence early on Monday, and Azhar was not the only PTI leader who suffered police force and invasion of privacy.
After a swarm of cops stormed Hammad Azhar’s home, they also raided the home of Usman Dar, a former special assistant to the prime minister.
Usman Dar, like Azhar, was unable to be apprehended since he was not at home. Many speculate that these attempted arrests are tied to former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Islamabad long march, which will take place on Wednesday (May 25).
“Stop us if you can,” Azhar tweeted after the attempted arrest.
‘These fascist steps would further exacerbate the economic condition and drag the country into disorder,’ the PTI chairman threatened the present administration on Twitter.
Imran reaffirmed the right to peaceful protest in a free society and denounced the government’s “brutal response.”