International desk: Pakistani police and supporters of Imran Khan fought pitched battles on Tuesday outside the former prime minister’s home in the eastern city of Lahore, injuring several on both sides, ahead of his possible arrest, a government spokesman and witnesses said.

The police charged the supporters with batons and lobbed teargas shells.

A few hundred Khan supporters gathered outside his house after a police team arrived from Islamabad to arrest him on a court order, government spokesman Amir Mir told Reuters.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers started the violence, which injured several police officials, Mir said, adding, “If Imran Khan ensures his presence in the court, it will be good, otherwise the law will take its course.”

Khan called on his supporters to stand up for the supremacy of law and fight for true independence.

“Police have come to arrest and send me to jail,” he said in a video recorded statement posted by his twitter handle. “If something happens to me, or sent to jail, or they kill me, you’ve to prove that this nation will continue to struggle even without Imran Khan.”