Imran smells a rat as police search looms.

LAHORE -- Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday reiterated that the violence on May 9 was pre-planned to justify crackdown on his party, as police continued the roadblocks around his residence at Zaman Park.

In a series of tweets, the PTI chief also alleged that the caretaker Punjab government was planning to bring 30-40 people to his residence and accuse him of harbouring terrorists.

Imran's tweets came as the government announced that a delegation would visit Zaman Park on Friday afternoon (today) for talks with Imran's representatives, regarding the search of his residence for the suspects wanted for May 9 violence in the city.

On Wednesday, heavy contingents of police and Anti-Riot Force (ARF) closed the roads to Zaman Park at Mall Road, Dharampura, Canal Road and Garhi Shahu, asking Imran to surrender 40 people suspected of attacking the Jinnah House.

The government gave the PTI chief a 24-hour deadline to surrender the 'suspected miscreants', warning that otherwise an operation would be launched. The deadline expired on Thursday.

Later, caretaker Punjab Information Minister Aamir Mir said that the Punjab police would send a delegation led by the Lahore commissioner to Zaman Park on Friday (today) to search the PTI chairman's house after his permission.

In an interview with a private TV channel, Mir also stated that contingents comprising nearly 400 policemen would accompany the delegation 'to arrest the terrorists holed up there'.

Taking to the microblogging website Twitter, Imran demanded an immediate inquiry into the alleged police firing on 'unarmed' PTI protesters that killed 25 and injured around 600. So far, he added, there was no mention of the killing of peaceful protesters.

'Under the smokescreen of arson, which any independent investigation will show was pre-planned, there is no mention in the media discourse of the massive violations of our fundamental right to protest peacefully,' he wrote.

The PTI chief, in another tweet, raised the question when the 'illegal' caretaker Punjab government announced that 40 terrorists were hiding at his residence, why had it not named them.

'The reason... was because what they were planning to bring 30-40 people with them and then accuse me [of] harbouring terrorists just like the last time when they broke into my house through an armoured car and then planted Kalashnikov and petrol bombs.'

The PTI chief later tweeted that his sympathies went out to all those, who...