ISLAMABAD: A wellequipped 1,500-strong force of capital police surrounded the Banigala residence of Imran Khan in the wee hours of Monday to arrest him, and others inside, but withdrew on the orders of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“We stood there ready for action for over an hour when the Prime Minister’s Office and interior ministry asked our chief to back down,” a police officer confided to Dawn.

Police officials had ordered the arrest of Imran Khan after he, while returning home from D-Chowk sit-in site around 2am, saw some activists of his Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaf being transported in a police van for detention and asked his bodyguards and party workers to free them, according to the officer.

Two separated cases, however, have been registered by the Secretariat police, one against Imran Khan, PTI leaders and activists for attacking police and snatching 10 party detainees at Lake View Park, and the other against 10 detainees for attacking and abducting two policemen and snatching their motorcycle and gears on Constitution Avenue.

“Police had rounded up 10 PTI activists near Constitution Avenue and were taking them to Secretariat police station when they spotted their leader’s motorcade near Lake View Park and attracted his attention by shouting slogans. The rest followed,” the police officer said.

Senior police officers were informed about the incident who hurriedly organised a raid on Mr. Khan’s residence.

Policemen in riot-gear were sent to Banigala at around 4am. “Once there, we waited for a signal to move in but the senior officials told us to wait for further orders. More than one hour later the contingent was called back,” he said.

An interior ministry official and another police officer said government quarters had come to know about the police raid in the meantime.

“The PM Office and the interior secretary called IGP Tahir Alam Khan and expressed displeasure over the raid plan,” they said.

According to the officials the police chief replied that those who attacked police and freed the detainees were hiding in Imran Khan’s house, and his force was just waiting outside to arrest them.

Later he called back the force in consideration of the thinking in PM Office and interior ministry that such action would have serious repercussions, they added.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014