CAGE declares Imran Khan a War on Terror prisoner of conscience

London — CAGE International is today naming Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, a War on Terror prisoner of conscience.

Since his removal from office in 2022, Imran Khan has faced a relentless campaign by Pakistan's military establishment, working in concert with their Western handlers. On the basis of trumped-up and manufactured allegations to silence his criticism of the neo-colonial state’s regime he has been disappeared from political and public life. He has been held for over three years, denied adequate medical care, subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, and, according to his sister, told by his captors that they intend to kill him "just like they killed Morsi."

Imran Khan was one of the most prominent political voices in the Muslim world to challenge the War on Terror directly, condemning drone strikes which led to over 80,000 Pakistani lives lost, resisting pressure to normalise ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords, and pursuing a foreign policy explicitly rooted in international law and solidarity with oppressed peoples. He was branded "Taliban Khan" by his opponents years due to his opposition to the Pakistani military establishment's 20 years support of the U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan.

In 2008, Imran Khan stood alongside CAGE and journalist Yvonne Ridley to hold the first press conference exposing the abduction and secret detention of Aafia Siddiqui, at a time when the Pakistani military establishment had successfully suppressed all knowledge of her case. That willingness to confront Pakistan's security establishment over its complicity in the War on Terror's abuses is a direct thread running to his imprisonment today.

Imran Khan's case is a textbook example of how terrorism frameworks built during the War on Terror are utilised and turned against political dissidents. He remains an inspiration for all those who seek justice against the ruling elites controlled by colonial powers since the end of the Sykes Picot and Balfour declaration conspiracies and the end of the Ottoman Caliphate.

In light of mounting concern over his deteriorating health, CAGE has written to both the Pakistani High Commission in the UK and Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, calling for immediate and unimpeded medical access, restored family and legal visits, and his unconditional release.