Pakistani police detained two close aides of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan on Monday in a raid on his party secretariat but later released one of them, the party and local media said.
A police contingent cordoned off the secretariat in Islamabad and detained the party’s acting chairman Gohar Khan and its secretary information Rauf Hasan, a party spokesman Zulfikar Bukhari told Reuters in a Whatsapp message.
His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said later that the acting chairman had been released shortly after being detained.
There was no immediate word on whether Hasan remained in custody. It was also not clear whether the two men had been charged.
A police spokesman said the secretariat’s digital media wing had been searched, without giving any further details. He said the police also took away “some officials”, without elaborating.
Pakistan’s information and interior ministries did not immediately respond to a request for a comment to confirm the arrest.
Former prime minister Khan has now been in jail for about one year, even though all four convictions handed down to him ahead of a parliamentary election in February have either been suspended or overturned.
His party secured the largest number of seats in parliament in the election despite efforts by what Khan’s party says is a military-backed crackdown that aims to keep him out of power.
Khan blames his 2022 ouster in a no-confidence vote on Pakistan’s powerful army generals after he fell out with them, a charge the army denies.
(Reuters)