So it's done. After having levelled allegations against senior officers of the Inter-Services Intelligence and clearly courting trouble, Imran Khan was whisked away by the Pakistan Rangers. The surprise was the way it was done. Arriving in strength, they broke into the Islamabad High Court record room, clearly with a good deal of violence involved as images showed broken glass and bloodied faces of PTI supporters.
This is also a message to the justice system: don’t interfere, or if you do, let it be on the side of the authorities. But Khan went a step smarter. He was clearly expecting this, and a video released after his arrest, called upon the nation to rise in his support. And it did. At least a large portion of it.
The crowd has attacked the Army targets, including the Lahore Corps commander's house and apparently, General Head Quarters, and at least, one ISI building. The worst hit seems to be Peshawar, where the swelling crowd has entered the Cantonment area. Security forces did nothing. That’s not surprising. No police in the world can take on a furious mob of this size. They’ll wait it out.