Imran Riaz Khan (

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Faisalabad is a Pakistani Journalist, Tv.Anchor and YouTuber. On 11 May 2023, Khan was reported to have been arrested by police while travelling in Pakistan. Media reports suggested that Imran's abduction may have been connected to him speaking out against the government and military. Given the context of enforced disappearances targeting critics, dissenters, and journalists in Pakistan, reports about Imran's situation raised concerns about his safety and well-being, including the possibility of mistreatment or even death as per reports. Human rights organisations such as

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

requested for an urgent transparent and thorough investigation into his disappearance. Imran Riaz was recovered and reunited with his family in September 2023, after over four months of disappearance, and has since been rearrested on 23 February 2024.

Early life and education

He was born into a Punjabi-Kashmiri family on 14 August 1975 in Faisalabad,

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

and after getting his early education at the Lahore Grammar School he studied

mass communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...

at the

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a State university in Jalandhar, Punjab * Panjab University, a public collegia ...

Professional career

He started his career as a crime reporter for a local newspaper. Later, he became a

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

on Express News channel. As a current affairs host he has also worked with the television channels GNN and Samaa TV. He started his YouTube channel "Imran Riaz Khan" in 2020, which as of October 2022 has more than 3.48 million subscribers.

Arrests

First arrest

While entering Islamabad Toll Plaza on 5 July 2022, he was driving to the federal capital to get bail from the Islamabad High Court and was arrested when Punjab Police surrounded his car before he could pass out of Punjab jurisdiction, despite being aware of court orders by the Islamabad and Lahore High Courts, and issuances of protective pre-arrest bail grants, intended to avoid an arrest of the journalist. Riaz later uploaded a video on YouTube stating that if he is not released, he will release the names of everyone who is behind the alleged regime change operation in which foreign influence provoked a constitutional crisis, ultimately ending with the PTI government of

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

being ousted, when the former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

was removed from office in what he calls an "American conspiracy" against the

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

of Pakistan. A day before his arrest, Riaz was critical of the Shehbaz Sharif-led government and uploaded a video to YouTube, in which

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...

News said Riaz "directly addressed Chief of Army Staff General

Qamar Javed Bajwa General Qamar Javed Bajwa ( ur, ; born 11 November 1960) is a retired Pakistani army general who served as the tenth Chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan from 29 November 2016 to 29 November 2022. In 2018 he was ranked 68th in the ''Forbes' ...

and alleged that he was threatened after asking questions from military sources about the country's current political and economic situation." Riaz also indicated that his family is the target of threats. Former Prime Minister of Pakistan

strongly protested the "arbitrary arrest" and called on the public as well as the media to "unite and stand up against this

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

." Former official

Asad Umar Asad Umar ( ur, ; born 18 September 1961) is a Pakistani politician who has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since September 2013. He served as the Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initi ...

stated that PTI party workers will stage protests at press clubs throughout the country for what he said is an "attempt to suppress freedom of expression". Immediately following the arrest, reports showed a wide condemnation of the treatment and expressions of concern stemming from similar ideological grounds favoring free speech, including that of academic and activist Ammar Ali Jan, who warned of the irrationality in "clumsy" uses of force in a "battle of ideas." He was released on bail on 9 July 2022, by Lahore High Courts' Judge Justice Baqar Najafi. His name was added to the

Exit Control List The Exit Control Lists (ECL; ur, ) is a system of border control maintained by the Government of Pakistan under Exit from Pakistan (Control) Ordinance, 1981. The people on the list are prohibited from leaving Pakistan. Priorities 1. Exit from P ...

by the FIA on the request of the police.

Second arrest

He was arrested again on 2 February 2023 on charges of "hate speech" and making a "violence-inducing statement" aimed at creating "a rift between the general public and the state institutions". and was released a week later.

Third arrest, disappearance, and recovery

In the aftermath of the

May 9 riots The May 9 riots were a series of violent clashes that took place on 9 May 2023, in Pakistan. Following the arrest of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party's leader, Imran Khan, from the grounds of the Islamabad High Court, demonstrations held b ...

, he was arrested once again by Punjab Police on 11 May 2023 from Sialkot Airport. The police later stated that he was released from jail the same night despite a detention notice of 30-days. After his release from jail, CCTV footage showed Riaz being abducted from outside the prison by 4–5 unidentified men who wore masks and forcibly put him inside a

Toyota Vigo The , stylized as HiLux and historically as Hi-Lux, is a series of pickup trucks produced and marketed by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The majority of these vehicles are sold as pickup truck or cab chassis variants, although they ...

. The matter of his recovery is subjudice in a case filed at Lahore High Court (LHC). The Chief Justice of the LHC Justice

Muhammad Ameer Bhatti Muhammad Ameer Bhatti (born 8 March 1962) who has been serving as the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court since July 2021. He has been Justice of the Lahore High Court The Lahore High Court () is based in Lahore, Pakistan. It was established as ...

heard the case. During a hearing on 22 May 2023, the police chief of Punjab,

Usman Anwar Usman Anwar is a Pakistani police officer who is Inspector General of the Punjab Police in the province of Punjab, Pakistan since 24 January 2023, earlier he remained Director Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Lahore. Career Anwar joined Punj ...

appeared clueless about the missing journalists whereabouts and asked for more time from the court to locate him. In another court hearing, Anwar said that no police station in Pakistan has Imran Riaz in their custody further stating that "No one has Imran Riaz (...) Imran Riaz Khan was not wanted by us. However, ‘agencies’ had asked for a police van. Why they had asked for a police van,

he court He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

can summon the agencies and ask." The agencies here being a euphemism for Pakistan's intelligence apparatus. On 27 May 2023, Daniel Bastard of the France-based global watchdog

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

said that it had received information from diplomatic sources that the missing journalist was tortured by in the custody of Pakistan's military intelligence agencies and may even have died in detention. On 30 May 2023,

claimed in court that Afghan SIMs were used by Imran Riaz's abductors and that the police was unable to trace them. Anwar also informed the court that a special working group was established by Punjab Police to recover the missing journalist. On 25 September 2023, the Inspector General of Punjab Police

confirmed that Khan was now "safe at home" after having been missing for more than four months. Khan had lost weight during his disappearance and was struggling to speak coherently.

Fourth arrest

In the early hours of 23 February 2024, in a raid on his residence, Imran was arrested for a fourth time by a contingent of Punjab Police. He was arrested on allegations of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

and sent on a 14-day judicial remand. He said that handcuffs were being slapped on his wrists in order to “pay salute to the queen” — an apparent reference to PML-N’s

Maryam Nawaz Maryam Nawaz Sharif ( Punjabi and ; born 28 October 1973), also known as Maryam Safdar, is a Pakistani politician and the daughter of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif. She was initially involved in the family's philanthropic orga ...

. He received bail and had started uploading videos on YouTube again.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Imran Riaz Living people Pakistani television journalists Pakistani YouTubers News YouTubers 1975 births Crime journalists Pakistani male journalists Pakistani television talk show hosts Pakistani investigative journalists Missing person cases in Pakistan Enforced_disappearances_in_Pakistan University of the Punjab alumni Pakistani people of Kashmiri descent