Rawalpindi Police took Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi into custody on Wednesday, reportedly in connection with a case linked to the May 9 riots.
Last week, the Supreme Court granted Qureshi bail in the cipher case, for which he was in detention for several months as the trial proceeds. Subsequently, authorities detained him for 15 days under the maintenance of public order, but this was withdrawn earlier this morning. As he was released from Adiala Jail, however, police immediately took him back into custody.
In footage shared by the PTI’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, police can be seen grabbing Qureshi and steering him toward a waiting van. Addressing media, he maintained he was being arrested in a bogus case. “I am innocent and being politically victimized,” he said. “Oppression, injustice. This is a mockery of the Supreme Court’s [bail] order. I am being subjected to political victimization without any reason,” he added
In a statement, Rawalpindi Police said the required the PTI leader’s custody for an inquiry in connection with several cases related to the May 9 riots that saw alleged PTI supporters attacking civil and military assets after party founder Imran Khan was arrested in a corruption case from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC). They said he would be produced in an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) for physical remand.
This is not the first time Qureshi has been re-arrested shortly after his release. Earlier this year, he was arrested multiple times in cases related to the May 9 riots. He is also facing an abetment charge under the Official Secrets Act in the cipher case, which accuses him and Khan of misusing a classified document for political gains.
Both Khan and Qureshi were granted bail in the cipher case by the Supreme Court last week against surety bonds of Rs. 1 million each. At the time, Khan was expected to remain in prison—as he is separately under arrest in two NAB cases—but Qureshi was likely to go free, because his lawyers maintained he was facing no other cases.