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Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan will appear in a special court at the capital’s police headquarters to answer graft charges on Wednesday, a day after his shock arrest prompted violent nationwide protests.
Khan’s detention follows months of political crisis and came hours after the powerful military rebuked the former international cricketer for alleging that a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him.
Some protesters took out their wrath on the military, torching the residence of the corps commander in Lahore and laying siege at the entrance to the army’s general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
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 had ruled for more than three decades.
In Peshawar, a mob razed the Chaghi monument — a mountain-shaped sculpture honouring the location of Pakistan’s first nuclear test.
Several memorials to service members killed on active duty were also vandalised.
Police fought pitched battles with supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in cities across the country for hours on Tuesday night.
Local media reported two deaths in those clashes, while police said at least 150 people had been arrested.
Tempers appeared to have cooled on Wednesday morning but there was a huge security presence across the capital, particularly outside the so-called police lines where the special court will convene.
Authorities also ordered schools…
