Islamabad: Pakistani security forces arrested thousands of followers of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday, to stop them from rallying ahead of his return from London to face jail time on corruption charges.
Tens of thousands of supporters were trying to reach the airport in the eastern city of Lahore to welcome Sharif as he returned from London to surrender after last week’s conviction by an anti-graft court, his party said.
But authorities deployed at least 15,000 police and 4,000 troops from a paramilitary force to stop rallies from reaching the airport where Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, are expected to land in the evening, party leader Rana Sanaullah.
“At least 4,000 of our party workers have been arrested,” Sanaullah said.
Authorities have put under house arrest several dozen leaders of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, including the former leader’s 93-year-old mother, who wanted to join the protest, Sanaullah said.
Sharif and his daughter are boarding an Etihad Airways plane in Abu Dhabi after arriving there overnight and are expected to reach Lahore in the next few hours, where authorities plan to arrest them.
BOMB KILLS 20: Meanwhile, a bomb killed at least 20 people and injured 40 others on Friday during a rally in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, in the day’s second attack on a political event ahead of the July 25 election.
“Twenty people were killed in the blast and we fear this toll may rise,” Agha Umar Bungalzai, provincial home minister, said, adding that more than 40 were wounded in Mastung town, near the provincial capital of Quetta. Bungalzai also confirmed the explosion killed Siraj Raisani, who was running for a provincial seat with Balochistan Awami Party (BAP).
“Mir Siraj Raisani succumbed to wounds while he was being shifted to Quetta,” he added.
Raisani was younger brother of former provincial chief minister Mir Aslam Raisani.
The explosion comes hours after four people were killed and 39 injured when a bomb hidden inside a motorcycle detonated near a Pakistani politician’s convoy in the country’s northwest near the Afghan border.
The earlier blast, near the town of Bannu, was targeting the convoy of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) candidate Akram Khan Durrani, who survived the attack, police said.
— Agencies
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