Noreen Niazi, the sister of PTI founder Imran Khan, has submitted a formal complaint to Punjab Inspector General of Police Dr Usman Anwar against the “brutal assault” of PTI protesters outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail last week.
Last week, Imran’s sisters had camped outside Adiala Jail, where the PTI founder is currently incarcerated, along with other PTI members after being denied a meeting. According to the PTI, Aleema Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen were “sitting peacefully” outside the jail when they were manhandled and “violently detained” by police.
Videos shared by the party on social media platform X showed workers, Aleema and Uzma gathered around Noreen, who appeared visibly shaken. “Those women were dragging [her] on the road,” Aleema said as Noreen’s hands trembled.
In a post on X on Monday, the PTI said Noreen had filed a formal complaint with the Punjab IG over the “brutal assault and unlawful detention of peaceful citizens”.
The party also shared the two-page letter, in which Noreen called the incident “deeply disturbing”. She said the violence was “brutal and orchestrated” and was carried out without provocation.
According to her, her and her sisters had for weeks been denied access to see Imran without justification, leading them to “peacefully and democratically protest” over concerns for his condition. She said that they were also accompanied by members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet, lawyers and party workers.
“We neither blocked roads nor obstructed public movement, nor engaged in any unlawful conduct,” she said.
“Yet, without warning or provocation, the streetlights in the area were abruptly switched off, deliberately casting the scene into darkness. What followed was a brutal and orchestrated assault by Punjab police personnel,” she said.
“At the age of 71, I was seized by my hair, thrown violently to the ground, and dragged across the road, sustaining visible injuries,” she said.
Noreen also recounted that other women were slapped and dragged, and peaceful citizens were rounded up in vans, only to be later abandoned in remote areas in the middle of the night.
“The fact that ministers and elected officials from another federating unit were subjected to this violence further underscores a dangerous erosion of political comity and the misuse of provincial police power to suppress legitimate political expression,” she said.
She said that the police’s conduct was part of a “broader and troubling pattern” of indiscriminate force used against peacefully protesting citizens over three years, reflecting a “troubling impunity”.
Noreen called the Punjab police’s conduct “not only indefensible (but) wholly criminal, illegal, morally reprehensible, and in direct contradiction to the foundational duties of any law enforcement agency in a democratic society”.
She said their actions amounted to actionable criminal offences as they were in breach of the provisions of the Police Order 2002.
She called on the Punjab IG to immediately initiate proceedings against all police personnel who participated in and authorised the incident, or failed to prevent it.
She also requested the preservation and impartial review of “all visual evidence” from the incident and the constitution of an impartial inquiry that treated peaceful citizens “as criminals”.
On November 20, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) had also expressed concern and called for an inquiry into the alleged mistreatment of the PTI protesters.
In a post on X, the HRCP had expressed concerns over the reports of Imran’s sisters being “manhandled” and noted that the rights of prisoners’ families to meet their relatives and the right to peaceful assembly are protected under national and international human rights law.
“The HRCP calls for a transparent inquiry and urges authorities to ensure the rights, safety and dignity of all involved are fully respected,” it added.
Subsequently, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, in a letter to his counterpart in Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, had also raised concerns over the incident and the obstruction of the incarcerated ex-premier’s visitation rights.
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