Video: Imran Khan's arrest sparks unrest in Pakistan; police clash with protesters

Protests erupted across Pakistan on Tuesday after former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested during a court appearance in the capital for one of dozens of cases pending since he was ousted last year.

His arrest follows months of political crisis and came hours after the powerful military rebuked the former international cricketer for alleging that a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him.

Some protesters took out their wrath on the military, storming the residence of the corps commander in Lahore and laying siege to a gate of the army's general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Watch video here:

Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse Khan supporters in Karachi and Lahore, while protesters blocked roads in the capital Islamabad, Peshawar, and other cities.

As news of the protests spread, both the United States and Britain called for adherence to the "rule of law" in Pakistan, while authorities restricted access to Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms, said NetBlocks, the global internet monitor.

Khan faces dozens of charges since being ousted -- a tactic analysts say successive Pakistan governments have used to silence their opponents.

He could be barred from holding public office if convicted, which would exclude him from elections scheduled for later this year.

Video broadcast on local TV channels showed Khan -- who has a pronounced limp since being shot during an assassination attempt last year -- being manhandled by dozens of paramilitary rangers into an armoured car inside the Islamabad High Court premises.

"As we reached the court's biometric room to mark the attendance, dozens of rangers attacked us," said Ali Bukhari, a lawyer with Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

"They beat him and dragged him out," he told AFP.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said Khan had been arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the country's top anti-corruption body.

"This arrest is in accordance with the law," he said. "NAB is an independent body and not under government control."

The PTI promised on Twitter to challenge the arrest, saying party leadership would gather Wednesday morning at Pakistan's Supreme Court.

"Tomorrow, we will approach the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court decision," Shah Mehmood Qureshi, vice chairman of the party, said in a video posted to the site.

"PTI senior leaders will meet Imran Khan at the NAB court," he said, also calling for demonstrations to continue in a "lawful and peaceful manner" while condemning police treatment of protesters.

The arrest comes a day after the military warned Khan against making "baseless allegations" after he again accused a senior officer of plotting to kill him.

The rebuke late Monday underscored how far Khan's relations have deteriorated with the military, which backed his rise to power in 2018 but withdrew its support ahead of a parliamentary vote of no confidence that ousted him last year.

"The timing of the arrest is striking," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center.

"The senior army leadership is uninterested in repairing the rift between itself and Khan, and so with this arrest it's likely sending a message that the gloves are very much off."

Anticipating his arrest, party officials released a pre-recorded video by Khan in which he urged supporters to come out in support of "true freedom".

"My Pakistanis, by the time these words reach you I would have been detained under an illegitimate case," he says in the video.

"One thing should become clear for all of you from this is that fundamental rights in Pakistan, the rights given to us by our constitution and democracy, have been buried."

• UAE: Pakistani mangoes set to arrive this month; will they be cheaper this year?