ISLAMABAD: After the Punjab police dispersed protesters outside the Adiala jail in the small hours of Wednesday, the opposition alliance, led by the PTI, denounced the use of water cannons against the family members of ex-prime minister Imran Khan and other party supporters.

This is the third time the police have used force to break up the sit-in outside the prison. Imran’s sisters Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan, and Noreen Niazi, besides scores of supporters, have been staging weekly protests outside the jail to demand a meeting with Mr Khan.

TTAP says struggle to continue despite govt ‘heavy-handedness’

Videos shared by the PTI Punjab account on the social media platform X after 1am showed water cannons targeting protesters. “In the severe cold, an attack with water cannons was carried out on unarmed, peaceful children, women, and citizens,” the X post said.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan condemned the use of water cannons and the arrest of Imran’s sisters and other PTI workers. The police, in a late-night operation, used water cannon to disperse the protesters and also arrested the sisters. However, they were later released near Chakri on the motorway.

In its statement, the opposition alliance alleged that the water used to scatter the PTI supporters was laced with a chemical and hundreds of supporters were “badly affected”. The TTAP spokesperson said that such tactics would not deter them from their stance that the violation of basic human rights should be stopped. They will continue the struggle, the statement added.

On the other hand, the PTI shared another list of six persons with the Adiala Jail administration, requesting it to allow them to meet Imran Khan on Thursday. The letter, written to the Adiala jail superintendent and signed by Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, mentioned Dr Amjad, Sibghatullah, Usman Bhattani, Jamal Khan, Iqbal Khattak, and Shoaib Ameer Awan.

A court order issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on March 24 has mandated that meetings with Imran will be permitted twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, the PTI maintains that the court order was not being complied with.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2026