Pakistan ex-PM Khan calls for fresh protest after new charges

Pakistan’s convicted former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has called for fresh protest after he was indicted on the charges of inciting attacks on the military.

The former cricket hero’s indictment followed a deadly protest march last week.

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 the ex-PM and several loyalists on the charges of directing attacks on the military in May 2023.

They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Khan, who has been in jail on multiple charges for more than a year, has urged followers to gather on December 13 in the north-western city of Peshawar, the capital of the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa that is ruled by his party.

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“The new protest is for the violence against our supporters,” Khan’s spokesman Mohamed Ali Saif told the media on Friday.

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.

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.

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