Students hand Imran Khan to police

On-the-run Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan was handed over to police today when he appeared at a student demonstration against emergency rule.

The former international cricketer was initially cheered by about 200 student supporters when he got out of a car on a university campus in the eastern city of Lahore.

But others representing the hard-line Jamaat-e-Islami party surged forward, grabbed him and hustled him into a nearby building.

The radical students placed Mr Khan in a van and took him to a campus gate, where he was handed over to police.

He is being held at an undisclosed location, and it has yet to be decided what crimes he will be charged with, police said.

Jamaat-e-Islami is also opposed to President Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of emergency rule, but were apparently angered that the relatively moderate Mr Khan was allowed on campus.

Mr Khan, a cricket legend who leads a small but outspoken opposition party, was the only one of Gen. Musharraf’s most outspoken critics not in detention or exile.

He went into hiding after Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3 and began rounding up opposition activists.

He gave a series of media interviews at secret locations in Lahore before deciding to join students at the University of Punjab protesting gen Musharraf’s assumption of emergency powers.

One student, Faisal Naim, said Mr Khan was still being hoisted aloft by his supporters when the radical students pushed forward.

“Some people came and took him away. He was on my shoulders when they grabbed him,” he said.