Talking to media persons at the ATC, Lahore, Imran claimed that 1,600 workers of the party had been held by the police.
"They are using suppressive tactics against us and they are taking every step to crush the PTI," he added.
Without naming anyone, the former premier said that they are kidnapping our workers, and likened the state's "barbarism" with the Israeli accesses in Palestine and Indian actions in the occupied Kashmir.
He warned, "Whatever step that they will take, will have a reaction."
Imran, however, said it was a struggle for 'real freedom' and it will need sacrifices. "I'm prepared as well and we will not step back; we will break the shackles of fear."
A day earlier, the LHC extended PTI chairman Imran Khan’s protective bail in five terrorism cases, wherein he faces the charges of attacking courts and law enforcers, vandalism, and impeding the courts’ process.
Violence on March 18
Following altercations between PTI workers and the police outside the Federal Judicial Complex after Imran Khan arrived there to attend the hearing of the Toshakhana case, Islamabad’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and the police station Golra Sharif filed cases against Imran and several other PTI leaders.
The police said that the demonstrators used vandalism and arson in addition to attacking law enforcement personnel who were doing their job to keep the federal capital lawful and orderly.
According to the FIR, PTI workers damaged a police checkpoint and smashed down the judicial complex’s main gate. It said that up to 18 people were detained for setting the complex’s building on fire, throwing stones at it, and resorting to vandalism.
At least two police cars, seven motorbikes, and the station house officer’s (SHO) official vehicle were all destroyed, it added.