• Punjab opposition leader, several MPAs detained on motorway
• PTI denounces use of force, urges govt to release workers

ISLAMABAD: Police on Tues­day rounded up dozens of PTI supporters and several party leaders, including the Punjab Assembly opposition leader, in a crackdown outside the Adiala jail and at Kal­lar Kahar and Chakri rest areas on the Lahore-Islamabad motorway.

The Adiala crackdown took pla­ce after a large number of party workers from Islamabad and Raw­alpindi arrived outside the prison despite the rain to support the sisters of Imran Khan. Last week, Mr Khan’s sister Aleema Khan said the authorities would not release her brother and they needed to take to the streets for his freedom.

PTI information secretary Shei­kh Waqas Akram told Dawn that the police used tear gas and batons to disperse the party workers and later arrested many of them. PTI leader Shahyan Bashir, who came from Lahore to Adiala, said that the police started shelling, injuring several workers. Around “a couple of dozen” workers were arrested, he said. The PTI leader said some PTI members also sustained injuries after they fell due to the slippery road.

PTI core committee member Seemabia Tahir, who was present outside Adiala, told Dawn that along with the three sisters of Imran Khan, they were stopped at the DHA Chowk near the prison. She claimed the police detained Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan, along with several workers, and locked them in a hotel by closing the shutters. The sisters were later released.

Earlier, Noreen Khan, while talking to media persons, said that law enforcement officials broke a number of vehicles and beat up workers but they managed to reach the prison. A clash between the PTI and police was also reported near the Marble Factory check post. Twelve PTI workers were subsequently arrested.

MPAs detained

The police also took into custody several Punjab leaders who were on their way to Rawalpindi. Mr Akram said the PTI leaders from Punjab usually gather at the Kallar Kahar rest stop en route to Adiala to travel in the form of a rally. Besides Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Moeenuddin Riaz Qureshi, MPAs Ali Imtiaz Warraic h, Farrukh Javed Moon, Imtiaz Mahmood Sheikh and other party leaders were also rounded up.

PTI seeks workers’ release

The PTI, in a statement, claimed that peaceful workers were arrested outside the jail without any justification. It urged the government and the judiciary to release the workers, saying that every citizen must be granted the full right to peaceful and lawful protest. It also demanded immediate permission for meetings between Imran Khan and his family, lawyers, and PTI office bearers.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2026