Four members of Imran Khan’s party’s media wing ‘abducted’

Lahore, July 20

In a fresh crackdown on jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s party, four senior members of his media team were taken into custody allegedly by intelligence agencies on Saturday.

“International Media Coordinator Ahmed Janjua and three other social media team members have been abducted early this morning,” Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said in a statement.

CCTV footage released by the party showed Janjua being taken into custody by plainclothes men in Islamabad at around 4 am.

According to the PTI, there has been a serious crackdown on the party’s social media team in the past two weeks.

“Any attempt to curtail the flow of information to the media is condemnable. The State must ensure their safety and return as soon as possible,” the party demanded.

PTI senior leader Zulfi Bokhari said, “Due to consistent international reporting of all the atrocities that are taking place in Pakistan, now my team is being abducted along with others. This continuous deterioration of basic human rights won’t continue for long.”

PTI has urged the superior judiciary to order Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government to recover the “missing” media wing persons safely.

The PTI also issued a list of 10 members of its media teams and their close relatives who have been “abducted by police or intelligence agencies”.

There has been a direct clash between the powerful military and 71-year-old Khan’s party since his ouster from power two years ago.

Khan has been in jail since August last year in multiple cases and the Shehbaz-led government has announced banning the PTI, labelling it a “terrorist outfit”.