Where is Imran Khan? PTI chief's sisters, supporters say no contact with jailed ex-Pakistan PM amid death rumours

Khan's sisters, Noreen Khan, Aleema Khan, and Uzma Khan, said they were manhandled by police personnel along with several PTI supporters who gathered outside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi earlier this week, urging authorities to grant them access to the incarcerated leader.

Imran Khan has been held in Adiala Jail since 2023, and according to his sisters, the authorities have barred them from seeing him for more than three weeks.

Their party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), claimed that the sisters and their supporters were peacefully sitting outside the prison gates when police “pounced on them” and assaulted them “for the crime of asking to meet Imran Khan.”

The PTI leadership has demanded an impartial investigation into what it described as a brutal attack on the women and party supporters.

In a letter addressed to Punjab’s police chief Usman Anwar, Khan’s sisters alleged that the violence was not spontaneous but orchestrated and carried out without provocation.

They wrote that they had been staging a peaceful demonstration out of concern for Khan’s health, neither blocking roads nor disrupting public movement.

Despite this, they said, authorities suddenly switched off streetlights in the area, plunging the surroundings into darkness before the police launched an assault.

Noreen Niazi recounted that at 71 years old, she was grabbed by her hair, thrown to the ground, and dragged across the street, leaving her with visible injuries.

Other women, she said, were slapped and pulled by the police.

She argued that the incident reflected a broader pattern of excessive force used against peaceful demonstrators over the past three years, describing the conduct of the police as unlawful, immoral, and contrary to the obligations of a democratic law enforcement agency.

Khan’s sisters have urged the Punjab IGP to take immediate action against the personnel responsible.

Afghan media's 'explosive' claim

The uproar came after Afghan media outlets claimed on Wednesday that Imran Khan had been killed inside Adiala Jail.

The unverified reports spread rapidly on social media, but neither the Pakistani government nor the military issued any confirmation. Similar rumours had also circulated in May this year and were later proven false.

On Tuesday, thousands of PTI supporters gathered outside the prison demanding clarity about Khan’s condition, prompting authorities to deploy hundreds of security personnel to maintain order.

According to Pakistan's leading English daily, Dawn, the protest was eventually called off at the request of Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen leader Allama Raja Nasir.

Imran Khan's imprisonment

Imran Khan, the patron-in-chief of PTI, has been incarcerated since August 2023 in connection with multiple cases.

Over the past month, an undeclared ban on meetings has reportedly been enforced, even as false reports of his death continue to circulate.

PTI has claimed that the 73-year-old cricketer-turned-politician is being kept in complete isolation and solitary confinement.

A member of his legal team said that not only have lawyers been denied access, but even books and basic necessities are being withheld.

“The law of the jungle prevails here,” lawyer Khalid Yousaf Chaudry remarked, “where only the beast who rules has rights.”

Even Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, according to PTI, was barred from seeing Khan despite making seven attempts, with jail authorities allegedly operating under the direction of an army officer.

Khan hit out at Pak Army chief last month

Just last month, Khan had sharply criticised Army chief General Asim Munir, accusing him of transforming Pakistan into a coercive “hard state” reliant on force rather than constitutional authority.

He argued that a genuine hard state is defined by the supremacy of law, justice, and democratic freedoms, while what he called “Asim Law” crushes these pillars.

He warned that no country can become strong without the consent of its people and said that the repression carried out under the current system was eroding the state’s foundations rather than strengthening them.