State Wanted To Kill Me In Police Custody, Says Pakistan Ex-PM Imran Khan

"We had reports that they wanted to arrest me so that they torture me first and then kill me," said Imran Khan.

A day after Punjab police failed to make an arrest for him in a corruption case, Pakistan's ousted prime minister, Imran Khan, claimed on Thursday that the state wanted to "torture and kill him in police custody," reported news agency PTI. "We had reports that they (a reference to PML-N led government and the military establishment) wanted to arrest me so that they torture me first and then kill me," Khan told a group of senior journalists on Thursday at his Zaman Park residence.

Over Khan's "arrest operation" in the Toshakhana case, his party workers, police, and Rangers have fought over his residence for the past two days. But the PTI workers were able to stop his attempt to be arrested, and the Lahore High Court ordered that the operation be stopped until Friday.

Khan, who survived an attempt to kill him in a rally in Punjab, further said the incumbent government doesn't have anything to do with law and order as it needed to dispose of him with the assistance of its 'facilitators' to stay in power.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader was talking about the brutal murder of senior journalist Arshad Sharif and the inhumane torture of senior leaders in his party like Azam Swati and Shehbaz Gill by men in police custody from intelligence agencies.

"Similar plan was afoot in my case. They launched the police-rangers operation to arrest him so that they could torture and kill me,” he said, quoted PTI.

"My party workers also were wary of this naked fact. That is why they put up strong resistance to thwart my arrest plan," he said, according to PTI.

Khan also talked about how close some police and Rangers were to arrest him. 

"During the police operation, some Rangers and police personnel managed to enter my house and (were) close to arrest me but God invoked a soft corner in them for me and they left without arresting me," Khan claimed.

Khan stated that the government and its agents do not want elections to take place within the next 90 days in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), and that if this does not occur, he will begin a struggle to restore the country's constitution.

After their assemblies were dissolved in January, the Election Commission of Pakistan has announced that polls will be held on April 30 and May 28, respectively, in Punjab and KPK.