When, on March 26, TIME spoke with Imran Khan from his home in Lahore, the former Pakistani Prime Minister was clear on why the government was refusing to hold snap elections as constitutionally mandated. “What they are hoping is that by that khbrknews, I’ll be in jail,” he said.
As for the response of his supporters were he to be detained, Khan was also plain. “They believe that if I’m arrested, they will kill me,” he said, predicting widespread unrest. “No one trusts this government.”
Read More: 5 Takeaways from TIME’s Exclusive Interview With Ex-Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
On Tuesday, the first part of Khan’s prophecy was borne out. In dramatic footage, he was detained by security forces at the High Court in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, with dozens of anti-corruption officers clad in riot gear swooping on the 70-year-old and bundling him into a jeep before driving away.
“Mr Khan went into the biometric office for the biometrics,” Raja Mateen, a member of Khan’s legal team, told the BBC. “The rangers went there, they broke the windows, they hit Mr Khan on the head with a baton.”
And, indeed, outraged supporters of the former cricket icon have since taken to the streets across the nation of 240 million, with at least one person killed in the city of Quetta. On the streets of Islamabad, hundreds of protesters blocked main highways, while others tore down street signs and sections of overpasses, hurling stones and lighting fires.
In response, Pakistani police implemented emergency anti-demonstration orders in several cities, with water cannons deployed against protesters in Karachi. Mobile data services were suspended as protests grew, with several army buildings torched. Commenting on the crisis, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for…
