The protests that began today with the shock arrest of Imran Khan, former Pakistan Prime Minister, outside Islamabad High Court, spread throughout the country by evening.
The Radio Pakistan building in Peshawar and several police vehicles were burning, and cries of “azadi (freedom)” rent the air. Police used water cannons and tear gas on the protesters; one worker of Imran’s Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party reportedly died.
There were reports that the protesters had even stormed the general headquarters of the Pakistan Army (simply known as “GHQ”) in Rawalpindi and set fire to the IV Corps commander’s house in Lahore. The protests, which began in Islamabad, spread to Karachi, Multan, and several other places, too.
All through the day, Pakistanis tweeted videos of the protests, encouraging each other to stand up to the authorities. Imran’s supporters believe that he was arrested for angering the army by accusing an ISI officer of murder, even though the arrest was supposedly in a corruption case.