International Desk: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi was arrested Wednesday, hours after the police apprehended PTI Secretary General Asad Umar as the authorities crack down on the party’s leadership amid countrywide protests due to PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s arrest.

People familiar with the matter said that Qureshi has been taken into custody for 15 days under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960.

The people added that both – Qureshi and Umar – have been shifted to the Secretariat Police Station in the federal capital, with police trying to arrest PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry as well.

The PTI’s top-tier leadership is being put behind bars, sources said, to ensure law and order as they are the ones calling the shots – may it be protests or other disruptions being caused in the country.

The protests are being held in remote and major cities alike as the party workers are agitated due to their chairman’s arrest, with Balochistan, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Islamabad summoning the armed forces to ensure law and order.

Umar, also a close confidant of Khan, was arrested by the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) from the premises of the IHC – the same court from where the PTI chief was taken into custody.