Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan has called for fresh protest after he was indicted on the charges of inciting attacks on the military, his party said on Friday, following a deadly protest march last week.
Khan, who has been in jail on multiple charges for more than a year, has urged followers to gather on Dec. 13 in the north-western city of Peshawar, the capital of the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa that is ruled by his party.
The latest call comes a week after thousands of Khan’s supporters rallied in the capital Islamabad for four days of protests in which his party said 12 demonstrators were killed by security forces.
An anti-terrorism court on Thursday indicted Khan and several loyalists on the charges of directing attacks on the military in May 2023.
They pleaded not guilty.
“The new protest is for the violence against our supporters,” Khan’s spokesman Mohamed Ali Saif told dpa.
The government denied that any protesters were killed during the march. It was reported that at least six members of the security forces lost their lives in clashes with enraged demonstrators.
Khan demanded that all his supporters who were arrested from the previous protests be released and a judicial commission must probe the violence at his rally last week.
“Otherwise, we will start a civil disobedience movement from next week,” Saif said, quoting his jailed leader.
Pakistan, a nuclear-capable Islamic republic, has been in political chaos since Khan’s government was removed through a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022.
