Pakistani authorities have launched a crackdown on former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf occasion, detaining 1000’s of the favored opposition chief’s supporters and allegedly pressuring senior allies to give up the group.

Pakistan’s military and the federal government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif have responded fiercely to violent protests this month sparked by Khan’s arrest by an anti-corruption company. At the least 10 individuals have died within the protests and navy buildings have been vandalised.

Khan, who’s out on bail, claimed on Thursday that 10,000 PTI supporters had been in jail. The federal government has estimated that the determine is decrease.

“The state is making an attempt to dismantle the occasion,” Khan mentioned, warning that Pakistan had begun a “descent into fascism” below Sharif.

Plenty of senior PTI leaders have additionally been arrested, and a few abruptly introduced they had been quitting the occasion and leaving politics in latest days. These included Fawad Chaudhry and Shireen Mazari, each former PTI ministers. Mazari introduced her retirement on Tuesday after being arrested 4 occasions this month.

Sharif and the military, which performs a robust behind-the-scenes position in governing the nation, have condemned the violence by Khan’s supporters and vowed to crack down on the alleged perpetrators, with the prime minister accusing them of terrorism. Defence minister Khawaja Asif mentioned on Wednesday that authorities had been contemplating banning the PTI. 

Khan, who has led a relentless and infrequently vitriolic marketing campaign for fast elections, and his occasion have additionally condemned the violence.

On Wednesday, the previous prime minister provided to barter with the federal government to discover a resolution to the disaster — his most vital concession since his elimination from workplace in a no-confidence vote final yr. “If they’ve an answer and [show] that the nation will do higher with out Imran Khan, I’m able to step apart,” he mentioned.

The arrests have alarmed worldwide observers, with the UN’s human rights commissioner Volker Türk warning on Wednesday that “the rule of regulation [is] at severe danger”. 

Analysts mentioned the crackdown, which they imagine is being orchestrated by the navy, is likely one of the most vital challenges to democracy in Pakistan because it returned to civilian rule in 2008 after years of dictatorship.

“The present crackdown is proof of a slide in the direction of full-blown authoritarianism,” mentioned Uzair Younus, director of the Pakistan Initiative on the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think-tank. “The present construction nonetheless has a facade of civilian democratic rule via parliament. Whether or not it survives the onslaught stays to be seen.”

He added that the marketing campaign was “being pushed by the navy, with the coalition authorities in Islamabad enjoying the position of a keen junior accomplice”.

Pakistan’s navy and the federal government didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Khan is dealing with a barrage of authorized challenges, together with allegations of corruption and terrorism, all of which he denies. Whereas many analysts mentioned he can be the preferred candidate in nationwide elections attributable to be held by October, he could also be barred from working if convicted.

“Earlier than the elections are held, the PTI shall be successfully shackled,” mentioned Imtiaz Gul, a political commentator in Islamabad. “It’s a scientific shackling of the preferred political occasion.”

Civil society teams have additionally known as on authorities to seek out Imran Riaz Khan, a pro-PTI journalist who has been lacking since his arrest on Could 11. 

Marketing campaign group Reporters With out Borders alleged that Khan, who will not be associated to the previous prime minister, had been “kidnapped” by the navy. “Pakistani authorities shall be held immediately answerable for any hurt which will have befallen him,” the group mentioned in a press release.

A second journalist, Sami Ibrahim, was additionally reported lacking by his household on Thursday.