Amid high political drama, detentions, and violent clashes between Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers and law enforcement agencies in various cities, PTI leaders and activists in Rawalpindi have gone underground to avoid arrest.
According to sources, the Rawalpindi police, acting on directions of higher authorities raided the houses and offices of former federal minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Sheikh Rashid Shafique, Raja Rashid Hafeez, Raja Basharat, and others, only to return empty-handed.
In the fresh round of raids, the police targeted the third-tier leadership of the party to weaken its strength and arrested 33 workers including PTI Metropolitan Senior Vice President Hafiz Zahid Khan, they said.
The raids to arrest Amir Kiyani, Umar Tanveer Butt and Malik Imran also ended up in failure.
Sources added that after violent clashes outside Islamabad Judicial Complex and Zaman Park in Lahore, the police have started a crackdown to arrest the active leaders and workers in Rawalpindi.
A police officer told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that the police have been provided with lists of the PTI leaders and activists. The lists include names of officials and workers of various wings of the party as well as former MNAs and MPAs, he said.
“The police have been asked to trace and round up PTI workers.”
He said in a late-night crackdown, the police took Hafiz Zahid Khan into custody and transferred him to Newtown police station.
Similarly, a police team led by Westridge Police Station SHO Inspector Zahid Zahoor raided the houses of Umar Tanveer Butt and PTI local leader Malik Imran but failed to arrest them.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 22nd, 2023.
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