[ad_1]
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani police detained hundreds of members of the ruling party in the central city of Lahore on Thursday.
No official reason was given to the party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N ), says it is an attempt to stifle its ability to launch street protests.
A police officer who has not been informed of this issue.
"We received instructions to take PML-N activists out of their areas to avoid a problem," the official told Reuters.
The crackdown on the PML-N, whose leaders have accused the military of destabilizing the party, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is due to return to Pakistan where he faces arrest.
Muhammad Mehdi, the party's media coordinator, told Reuters that nearly 500 workers had been detained in a "massive crackdown," including raids on the homes of some of the local's party councillors.
PML-N members of the United States of America, United States of America, United States of America, United States of America, United States of America
In Pakistani accountability court on Friday sentenced to death in prison for London flats.
Sharif has denounced the court proceedings as politically motivated and has a judicial witch-hunt, often suggesting the military was to blame.
Sharif also said the military's intelligence wing, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, is intimidating his party's candidacy to switch loyalties, or to run as independents, ahead of the July 25 poll.
The run-up to the general election has been marred by accusations that the military is meddling in politics and muzzling the media to help usher cricketer turned politician Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) into power.
Sharif's second stint in power in 1999 in a bloodless coup, denies involvement.
Khan has also denied colluding with the military.
The Punjab government's caretaker law minister, Shaukat Javed, told Reuters his office had not ordered the detentions.
"Punjab government has not issued any PML-N activists," he said.
Dozens of PML-N activists were arrested this week and appeared on Wednesday, accusing plotting unrest to coincide with Sharif's return.
A PML-N official told Reuters that police began monitoring his house and the residencies of a party of other activists on Wednesday night.
"I left my house at a friend's house," Mustafain Shah said.
Additional reporting and writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Nick Macfie
Source link
