PAKISTANI police kept up their siege around the home of Imran Khan as a 24-hour deadline given to the former premier to hand over suspects allegedly sheltered inside expired today.

The siege and the authorities’ demand for the suspects, wanted in violent protests over Mr Khan’s recent detention, have angered the former prime minister’s many followers and raised fears of renewed clashes between them and security forces.

Last week, Mr Khan’s supporters attacked public property and military installations after he was dragged out of a courtroom and arrested in a graft case. 

At least 10 people were killed in clashes with police across the country in the days that followed. The violence subsided only when Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered Mr Khan’s release.

The popular former cricketer was freed from custody over the weekend and returned to his home in an upscale district of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city and the capital of the Punjab region. 

Dozens of his supporters have been staying there with him, along with private guards. 

Police surrounded the residence on Wednesday, saying they wanted 40 suspects handed over.

The ultimatum for Mr Khan ended at 2pm local time, but there were no immediate signs of any movement by police. 

Mr Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, invited reporters to the house to witness any police raid.

Hours after the expiry of the ultimatum, Hassan Javed, a senior police official, told reporters that officers were waiting for a signal from the government to launch the raid. He said that police captured at least eight suspects after they left Mr Khan’s house and tried to escape via a nearby canal.

Typically between 200 to 300 of Mr Khan’s supporters, holding sticks, guard his residence around the clock, but most disappeared overnight. 

Police have barricaded a key road leading to the house and asked residents to use an alternate route.

“Probably my last tweet before my next arrest,” Mr Khan tweeted on Wednesday, after the siege started. “Police have surrounded my house.”

Mr Khan was ousted by a non-confidence vote in Parliament last year. He has claimed the ousting was illegal and a Western conspiracy.

He now faces more than 100 legal cases, mainly on charges of inciting people to violence, threatening officials and defying a ban on rallies. He has been summoned by the National Accountability Bureau to answer questions on Thursday in connection to a corruption case he faces.

Mr Khan denies all the charges against him.