2-Week Ban Imposed On Imran Khan Meetings In Jail

Pakistani authority imposed on Tuesday a two-week ban on all public visits, meetings and interviwes at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail, where Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief and former prime minister Imran Khan has been incarcerated, citing "security" threats.

In a letter written to the Punjab prisons chief, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the Punjab Home Department said its Internal Security Wing conveyed that “there exist different types of threats to [the] security of Adiala jail as some anti-state terrorist groups supported by the enemies of Pakistan have planned to conduct targeted attacks”.

“As a security measure against the aforementioned attacks”, the department requested the prison chief to “stop public visits/meetings/interviews within the Adiala Jail immediately for two weeks”.

The decision was taken days after the Rawalpindi Cou­nter Terrorism Depart­ment (CTD) and the police foiled what they claimed was an attempt to attack the jail, arresting three terrorists.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan is currently serving his sentence in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Punjab. He has been sentenced to 31 years in various cases.

The notice said, due to security reasons, all kinds of visits like meeting, conversation and interview with Imran Khan will be stopped in Adiala Jail. Apart from this, instructions have also been given in the notice to install barbed wire fence outside the prison premises.

Besides Imran, fellow senior PTI leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Parvez Elahi are also detained at the Adiala jail.

Other PTI leaders, who were denied a meeting with Imran due to the ban, assailed the Punjab government.

Earlier on Thursday, law enforcement officers arrested three persons with a map of Adiala jail, explosives. The Counter-Terrorism Department (CPD) of the country said this.

Apart from this, a bag with explosive equipment was recovered from an area one kilometer away from Adiala prison on November 7 last year.