Imran Khan comes out of hiding, cops detain him

New Delhi: Pakistani police detained cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan on Wednesday, shortly after he left Punjab University campus in Lahore where religious students had briefly held him during a rally, police said.

Imran, who was earlier in hiding, told CNN-IBN that he would march along with students and workers from his Tehreek-e-Insaaf party and other opposition parties.

He said he was willing to be arrested and hoped the students’ rally would be the biggest in Pakistan's history.

Imran is demanding that the Pakistani constitution be restored and the Supreme Court reinstated. He has already announced his party's boycott of the upcoming elections and criticised former prime minister Benazir Bhutto for what he calls her mock fight with General Pervez Musharraf.

In an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN over the phone from an undisclosed location in Pakistan, Khan had said recently that Benazir was siding with Musharraf in order to get the corruption cases against her quashed.

Accusing Benazir of indulging in a mock fight with Musharraf, Khan said Benazir and the authorities would go through the motions of pretending they are in opposite camps. He also said people of Pakistan had seen through them and soon, there would be a nationwide movement to restore democracy.

“This is what we call Mura Kushti in Urdu - you know, mock fighting. It’s all posturing. The workers will be confined by the police, there will be few arrests and people will be arrested. Later on in the evening, they will be released. Benazir has to do a lot of making up after having done a power-sharing deal with Musharraf to get off her corruption charges. Now I am afraid she has to pretend to the people that she is not with Musharraf,” Khan said.

Khan also told CNN-IBN that he's shocked at US President George Bush’s support to Musharraf.

“I am really shocked by George Bush's statement when he says that he's standing behind Musharraf and he wants Benazir to do a power-sharing deal with him. Firstly, it is shocking because there is a blatant outside interference in trying to impose some sort of government on Pakistan. Secondly, there is no consideration for 160 million people,” he said.