SHAH ALAM – Uncertainty is spreading across Pakistan as questions over former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s condition and location intensify, following claims by his sisters that they were violently assaulted by police while attempting to visit him at Adiala Jail.
Speculation circulated widely across Pakistan and on regional social media after multiple online accounts from Afghanistan and Pakistan claimed that Imran Khan was mysteriously killed inside Adiala Jail.
These rumours emerged shortly after his three sisters, Noreen Niazi, Aleema Khan and Dr Uzma Khan, said they were brutally attacked by police officers while waiting outside the prison to see him.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members said the sisters had camped outside the Rawalpindi facility when the confrontation took place.
Noreen Niazi detailed the alleged sequence of events:
“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,” she stated.
Noreen, 71, said she suffered injuries during the confrontation, claiming she had been grabbed by the hair, thrown to the ground and dragged across the road, which left her visibly hurt.
Thousands of PTI supporters also gathered outside Adiala Jail, chanting against the government and condemning Imran Khan’s extended detention.
His sisters claimed that the police also targeted other women who were present.
Noreen condemned the police actions, asserting they were part of a wider issue:
“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 wholly criminal, illegal, morally reprehensible, and in direct contradiction to the foundational duties of any law enforcement agency in a democratic society,” she said.
The confrontation occurred amid a month-long government-imposed restriction barring any meetings with Imran Khan inside the prison.
The former prime minister has been held since August 2023 in several ongoing cases.
Earlier, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi attempted to visit Imran, making seven consecutive trips to the prison.
However, he was repeatedly denied access by authorities, whom Imran alleged were controlled under the direction of an army officer.