Violence escalated in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province after the federal government imposed emergency measures, with the Governor House reportedly set ablaze amid protests and a widening security crackdown on supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Videos circulating on social media showed the Governor House engulfed in flames, while other footage purportedly showed police firing and shelling in different cities across the province. Details about the circumstances of the fire, the extent of the damage and possible casualties were not immediately available.
The unrest follows protests on Sunday against the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule, a move reported to have curtailed the authority of the provincial government led by Khan’s PTI.
The party’s planned march to Islamabad was disrupted amid a sweeping security operation. According to media reports, police arrested 59 PTI workers in Swabi and six in Khyber district. Reports also indicated that Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and PTI provincial president Junaid Akbar had been taken into custody.
Security personnel were deployed at major intersections and highways across the province. Mobile phone and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) internet services were also suspended in Swabi as authorities moved to tighten control over the situation.
In a separate development, former KP chief minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur said he had been placed under house arrest at his residence in Dera Ismail Khan.
The federal government’s move drew strong opposition from political parties, which described governor’s rule as an attack on democracy and pledged to challenge it through legal and public platforms.
In a statement, the PTI called the decision a “dangerous precedent” and alleged that it was intended to weaken the province’s elected leadership through political victimisation. The party demanded the immediate release of Afridi and Akbar and called on the federal government to disclose the legal basis, specific charges and procedures behind their arrests.
The Tehreek-i-Tahafuz Ayin-i-Pakistan (TTAP) also vowed to contest governor’s rule in courts, assemblies and public forums, while maintaining that the PTI’s planned protest march would proceed as announced.
FOLLOW NOW
