Thousands of people gathered in the Pakistani capital on Sunday to demand the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been held for more than a year amid growing political unrest in the country.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party organised the rally, the first show of force since the controversial general election in February.
Local media did not provide live coverage of the event, which took place on the outskirts of the capital. Images and videos posted on the social media platform X showed Khan’s supporters marching towards the capital from different parts of the country.
The PTI accused the authorities of intimidating workers to suppress the turnout for the rally. The city government blocked key entry points into Islamabad, with shipping containers and riot police deployed to prevent possible unrest.
“We will not rest until Khan is released from prison,” Khan’s close aide Hammad Azhar said in the opening speech that set the tone for the meeting.
Khan is the only one who can save this country from the clutches of corrupt and incompetent politicians, said Salman Akram Raja, a prominent lawyer and PTI leader from Lahore.
Khan has been in prison since August 2023 and is due to stand trial for allegedly inciting violence on May 9 of that year, when his supporters attacked military installations in an unprecedented move.
Khan denies the charges. All of his convictions have been suspended or quashed in recent months.
However, the unprecedented arrest and subsequent court martial of a former spy chief, widely believed to have had close ties to Khan when he was prime minister, has complicated his case.
