Imran Khan’s sisters demand probe into ‘brutal’ police assault on them outside Adiala Jail

Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s three sisters have demanded an impartial probe into the “brutal” police assault on them and supporters of their brother outside the Adiala Jail last week.

Khan’s sisters — Noreen Niazi, Aleema Khan and Dr Uzma Khan — had camped outside Adiala Jail along with other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members after being denied a meeting with him for a month.

They were sitting outside the jail when police personnel pounced on them and brutally assaulted them for what the party said was “their crime for seeking a meeting with Imran Khan”.

In a letter to Punjab police chief Usman Anwar, Khan’s sisters said the violence was “brutal and orchestrated and carried out by policemen without provocation.”                 “We peacefully protested over concerns for his health condition. We neither blocked roads nor obstructed public movement, nor engaged in any unlawful conduct. Yet, without warning or provocation, the streetlights in the area were abruptly switched off, deliberately casting the scene into darkness. What followed was a brutal and orchestrated assault by Punjab police personnel,” Noreen Niazi said.

“At the age of 71, I was seized by my hair, thrown violently to the ground, and dragged across the road, sustaining visible injuries,” she lambasted.

She said that other women present outside the jail were slapped and dragged.

“Police’s conduct was part of a broader and troubling pattern of indiscriminate force used against peacefully protesting citizens over three years, reflecting a troubling impunity.

“Police’s conduct was not wholly criminal, illegal, morally reprehensible, and in direct contradiction to the foundational duties of any law enforcement agency in a democratic society,” she said.

Khan’s sisters demanded that the IGP Punjab immediately initiate proceedings against all police personnel involved in this brutal assault.

Khan, the patron-in-chief of PTI, has been in jail since August 2023 in multiple cases.

The government has placed an undeclared ban on the meetings for over one month.

Even Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi was not allowed to meet Khan. Afridi made seven consecutive attempts to see him in jail, but he was denied by the jail authorities, whom Khan claims were controlled by an army officer.