Imran Khan’s sisters allege police assault amid concern over his health

Amid rumours of Imran Khan, former Pakistan Prime Minister, dying in jail, three sisters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief alleged that they were brutally assaulted by police after they demanded a meeting with Imran, who is currently lodged in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail.

'Brutal assault' by police

Speaking to reporters, the cricketer-turned-politician’s three sisters- Noreen Khan, Aleema Khan, and Uzma Khan- alleged that they were assaulted by police while staging a peaceful protest outside the jail demanding to meet Imran.

The former Pakistan Prime Minister has been in Adiala jail since 2003. His sisters alleged that the jail authorities have not allowed them to meet Khan for over three weeks.

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According to the PTI leadership, Imran’s sisters, along with party workers, gathered outside the jail when, suddenly, without any provocation, police personnel "pounced on them" and "brutally assaulted"them for "their crime of seeking a meeting with Imran Khan. They also demanded an impartial probe into the assault by police.

Imran’s sisters, in a letter to Punjab police chief Usman Anwar, alleged that the violence was "brutal and orchestrated and carried out by policemen without provocation."

'Peaceful protest'

"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 added as quoted by NDTV.

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Noreen further alleged that other women who took part in the protest were also slapped and dragged by the police personnel. She described the police action as “part of a broader and troubling pattern of indiscriminate force used against peacefully protesting citizens over three years” adding that it reflects 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 added.

Demand of strict action

Imran’s sisters demanded that IGP Punjab immediately initiate stringent action against the police personnel.

Khan, the patron-in-chief of PTI, has been jailed since August 2023 in several cases, and the government has enforced an undeclared ban on meetings with him for more than a month.

During this period, false rumours about his death have circulated on social media. According to PTI, Khan remains in complete isolation and solitary confinement.