Pakistan ex-PM Khan remanded in custody after arrest prompts riots

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was remanded in custody for eight days on Wednesday by an anti-graft court as violent nationwide protests over his arrest erupted for a second day.

Khan was arrested on Tuesday during a routine hearing in the capital Islamabad and whisked away to an unknown location overnight before appearing behind closed doors in a specially convened court at police headquarters.

The drama follows months of political crisis during which Khan, who was ousted in April last year, has waged an unprecedented campaign against the country's powerful military.

"If they think that the arrest of Imran Khan will demoralise us, then they are hugely mistaken," said Niaz Ali in Peshawar, where several monuments and government buildings have been torched. "We stand with Imran Khan and will support him till death."

Ali Bukhari, a lawyer for Khan, told AFP by phone that the court had approved eight days of physical remand of Khan demanded by the country's top graft agency.

Afzal Marwat, another of Khan's lawyers, earlier said Khan was in "good spirits" but had complained of being hit on the back of the head and leg by paramilitary forces who arrested him.

The former cricketing superstar, who remains wildly popular, has previously said the dozens of cases brought against him are part of an effort by the struggling government and military establishment to prevent him from returning to power.

His arrest has brought thousands of his supporters to the streets in cities across the country, where police have attempted to quell crowds with tear gas.

At least six people have died in protest-related incidents, police and hospitals reported, including one person who died from smoke inhalation after a multi-storey building was set on fire in Lahore.

Khan's arrest came hours after the military rebuked him for alleging that a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him.

Pakistan politicians have frequently been arrested and jailed since the country's founding in 1947, but few have so directly challenged a military that has staged at least three coups and ruled for more than three decades.

Criticism of the military establishment is rare in Pakistan, where army chiefs hold significant influence over domestic politics and foreign policy, and have long been accused of interfering in the rise and fall of governments.

"The senior army leadership is uninterested in repairing the rift between itself and Khan," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center. "So with this arrest it's likely sending a message that the gloves are very much off."

The Interior Ministry had ordered mobile internet services cut and restricted access to social media sites Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, the country's communications agency said. Authorities have ordered schools closed across the nation – with end of year exams cancelled for students.

Hundreds of police officers have been injured across the country, while in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab nearly 1,000 people have been arrested and the army ordered to deploy to keep peace. (AFP)

Pictured above: Supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan throw stones at police during a protest against Khan’s arrest, in Peshawar, Pakistan, 10 May 2023