Police surround Zaman Park as govt's deadline to surrender 'terrorists' expires

LAHORE:

As the 24-hour deadline given to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) by the Punjab government to hand over some 30-40 suspects involved in the May 9 violence expired, law enforcers reportedly surrounded the Zaman Park residence of former premier Imran Khan.

According to Express News, there is a heavy police presence around the PTI chief’s residence and all roads leading to Zaman Park have been closed to traffic. 

Moreover, all camps of PTI workers outside Zaman Park have been vacated.

Read ‘PTI protest caused Rs145m damage to public property’

Citizens are reportedly facing serious transportation problems due to road closures. Moreover, Dharampura Bridge was also closed by the police and a heavy contingent of police arrived there.

According to sources, arrests will be started after approval from the Punjab government, while it has also been decided to limit the strategy to specific officers.

As the deadline expired, PTI's official Twitter handle invited the media to cover the “search operation order given by illegal caretaker government”.

All media is once again invited to Zaman Park to cover the search operation order given by illegal caretaker government.

Media should come, see and let people see the reality as yesterday’s plan was exposed by PMLN’s representatives themselves on live tv. https://t.co/hc1oWlxRnS

— PTI (@PTIofficial) May 18, 2023

The Punjab Police is of the view that “terrorists” who attacked the military installations on May 9 are present in Zaman Park and have to be arrested.

Several government and private properties were torched and vandalised on May 9 following the arrest of Imran Khan. Those included military installations such as the Corps Commander’s residence in Lahore and General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

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A day earlier, the Punjab government asked the PTI to hand suspects involved in the May 9 violence, who were allegedly hiding at Zaman Park, a provincial minister said.

Addressing a news conference, Amir Mir, the caretaker information minister, said that if the PTI refused to hand over those “terrorists in Zaman Park to the law-enforcement agencies”, the government would be forced to take strict measures.

Hours after the caretaker minister's news conference, the former prime minister took to Twitter and said he feared he could be re-arrested as the police had surrounded his Zaman Park residence, describing his tweet as “probably” his last one before his “possible arrest”.