Police use water cannon, tear gas on Imran Khan's supporters in Lahore

Police on Tuesday fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse supporters of Pakistans ousted prime minister Imran Khan who gathered outside his residence here to prevent his arrest in the Toshakhana caseTV footage showed police slowly approaching the Zaman Park residence of Khan behind an armoured vehicle that was dispersing his supporters with a water cannonA senior police officer of Islamabad police said that his team has come here to arrest the Pakistan TehreekeInsaf PTI chairman in the Toshakhana caseKhan has been in the crosshairs for buying gifts including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana and selling them for profitClashes erupted between police and PTI workers when the former approached Khans residence to arrest him His supporters pelted stones at the policemen Both Khans party workers and policemen were injuredThe official Twitter handle of the party earlier urged supporters and workers to gather outside the residence and remain peacefulA large number of PTI workers equipped with clubs were present outside the 70yearold leaders residence to resist the police actionThe police blocked all roads leading to the house of the PTI chairman by placing containers and riot personnel took positions to launch the operationSenior PTI leader Farukh Habib told reporters that come what may Imran Khan would not surrender to police in fake cases The arrest warrants in the case related to threatening a female judge were today suspended by the Islamabad High Court Lets see what new warrants police have brought with them now Habib saidOne activist of Khans party was killed on Wednesday during a crackdown on his supporters who gathered outside his residence in Lahore defying a government ban on rallies in the cityAlso readTop Pakistan court suspends arrest warrants against former Prime Minister Imran Khan in judge threats caseOn Monday the Lahore police had booked Khan in a case related to the killing of the PTI worker Ali Bilal alias Zille Shah in a road accidentEarlier the Lahore police had registered an FIR against Khan and 400 others for the murder of Shah The new FIR has been registered against Imran Khan Fawad Chaudhry Dr Yasmin Rashid and a number of other PTI men for abetment to murder concealing facts and evidence related to the death of Zille Shahiquest a senior police officer told PTIHe said the police may arrest Khan and others nominated in the FIR after direction from the top The PTI had accused the police of murder of Shah after inflicting brutal torture on March 8This is the 81th FIR against Khan since the PMLN led federal coalition came into power 11 months ago after toppling his government through a noconfidence motionKhan Monday led a march of thousands of his supporters a day after he called off his partys election rally following a ban on public gatherings in Punjabs provincial capitalThe former cricketerturnedpoliticians supporters threw rose petals at a convoy carrying him to Data Darbar shrineKhan was ousted from power in April last year after losing a noconfidence vote which he alleged was part of a USled conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia China and AfghanistanSince his ouster Khan has been clamouring for immediate elections to oust what he termed was an imported government led by prime minister Shehbaz SharifSharif has maintained that elections will be held later this year once the parliament completes its fiveyear tenureThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever