Pakistan’s Shahbaz Sharif orders those involved in violence tracked down and arrested

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered authorities on Saturday to identify and arrest all those involved in violent acts after former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s arrest this week sparked deadly unrest, Azernews reports citing Al Arabiya.

Khan departed the court premises late Friday night and headed towards his hometown Lahore amidst high security, after a court granted him bail. His arrest in a land fraud case on Tuesday, which the Supreme Court ruled “invalid and unlawful” on Thursday, sparked violent protests by his supporters.

They stormed military establishments, set ablaze a state broadcaster building, smashed buses, ransacked a top army official’s house and attacked other assets, leading to nearly 2,000 arrests and the army being deployed in multiple cities.

At least eight people were killed in the violence, a spasm of unrest in a country that is facing economic crisis, with record inflation, anemic growth and delayed IMF funding.