Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ruled that former prime minister Imran Khan’s dramatic arrest on corruption charges this week was illegal.

The court ordered Mr Khan’s immediate release. His lawyers had argued that his detention from court premises in Islamabad on Tuesday was unlawful.

At least 10 people have been killed and 2,000 arrested as violent protests have swept the country since he was held.Tuesday’s arrest escalated growing tensions between him and the military.The opposition leader, ousted in a confidence vote in April last year, was brought to court on the orders of Pakistan’s top judge.

“Your arrest was invalid so the whole process needs to be backtracked,” Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial told Mr Khan.The former cricketer told the judges he’d been kidnapped from the High Court and “hit with sticks”.Footage showed paramilitary forces seizing Mr Khan, who was injured in a gun attack last year, and dragging him from inside court premises, before whisking him away in an armored vehicle.

His PTI party say the cases against him are politically motivated. The arrest enraged his supporters – the past 48 hours have seen widespread violence and rare attacks on state and military facilities.