SIALKOT / ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Mohammad Asif has said in categorical terms that from now onwards, “no attacker” will be allowed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to enter Islamabad, describing the recent PTI’s protest in capital as part 2 of May 9 tragedy. “We have to destroy the evil intentions of our enemies,” he told a press conference at his residence in the cantonment on Saturday.

He said PTI always practised the politics of chaos and was still spreading false propaganda about the bodies. “Everyone knows what the PTI did on Nov 24. It is spreading false propaganda on bodies. It martyred police and Rangers personnel whose funerals were also held. The PTI should not spread false propaganda on the bodies of its workers. We pay tribute to all the martyrs, including Rangers and police, who did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for our beloved homeland.

“I should make it clear that no attacker will come from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa now. Those who made big claims left the field and ran away at the first obstacle,” he said, adding that the way KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur and Imran Khan’s spouse Bushra Bibi left the party workers and fled had no example in the past.

“We’d offered them to sit and hold a rally at other places, yet this lady did not accept. Latif Khosa and other PTI leaders are giving different numbers of their ‘martyrs’, initially in thousands, then in hundreds and now 10 or 12. But no testimony has been received from grieving families in this regard,” he added.

The defence minister said PTI leader Omar Ayub, who claimed he was shot in the chest, was fit to hold a press conference. He reiterated the PTI had always done politics of chaos. “It held its first sit-in in 2014, resulting in the cancellation of the visit of the Chinese premier to Islamabad. Then they announced a sit-in to sabotage the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Islamabad, but by the grace of Allah, the meeting took place and now, during the visit of the president of Belarus, the PTI tried to hold another sit-in in Islamabad. This shows their ‘anti-nationalism’. Gandapur ran away from Islamabad and now he is shouting and saying that the sit-in is still going on. It is beyond understanding what kind of sit-in is this?” the minister wondered.

Tarar says the man reportedly pushed off container was injured but is now ‘completely fine’

‘PTI is a facilitator’

On the other hand, Mr Asif said that attackers from Afghanistan were crossing the border and coming to KP. “Taliban are crossing the border. All this is part of a conspiracy that Pakistan’s enemies have dreamed of [a bid] to separate KP from Pakistan and PTI is the political facilitator of this conspiracy. This situation is unacceptable and intolerable,” he said.“Nov 24 [protest] was actually May 9 [violence], which was thwarted by our defence agencies,” he added.

Separately, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar regretted that the PTI was resorting to a “false narrative of dead bodies and firing” to cover up the embarrassment of fleeing from Islamabad.

In a media talk regarding ‘fake photos and posts’ being uploaded by PTI on social media, he said the party had failed to produce even a single video of the firing in the past three days. Instead, they were uploading old photos and AI-generated images on social media, even those of Gaza victims and a 2019 incident when PTI itself was in power, he said.

On the contrary, he said, the PTI protesters used weapons against security personnel and inflicted damage on public property.

He questioned why the PTI did not post the photos and footage of martyred personnel of police and Rangers.

Instead, he added, the PTI uploaded a fake image, showing an entire road in Blue Area covered in blood. Such posts were being ‘stamped as fake’, as a cell has been set up to check them, he said.

Mr Tarar said those who had shared wrong data about dead bodies on social media accounts would have to give evidence or face the music.

In fact, the minister said, a power struggle was going on in the PTI rank. The absence of leadership during the protest was its manifestation, he said.

He also condemned the harsh words used by Bushra Bibi against senior lawyer Salman Akram Raja and Sahibzada Hamid Raza.

He demanded that PTI pay compensation to the traders and entrepreneurs who had suffered Rs190 billion losses per day due to the protest.

He said CM Gandapur had run away twice. Such people should be ashamed before instigating the people to take to the streets, he said, adding that their anti-national agenda had been exposed.

Mr Tarar said a man who was reportedly pushed off a container during the PTI protest was injured but “completely fine”, refuting claims circulating online about his death, Dawn.com reported.

‘Man on container’

In the wake of the protests, a video was widely circulated online, which showed uniformed men, who appeared to be security personnel equipped with riot control gear, shoving a man off a stack of three shipping containers that had been placed to block D-Chowk.

A picture captured by an AFP photographer showed the man hanging off a corner of the container as the uniformed men stood on top of the container. Various posts on social media claimed the man had died.

Apparently referring to the incident, Mr Tarar said: “Propaganda was done that a person was offering prayers and was killed by pushing him down.

“He is a resident of Mandi Bahauddin and is completely fine. His video has emerged, he got hurt on the arm and has bandages,” the minister confirmed.

Mr Tarar went on to claim that the person was recording a TikTok video as he had “challenged his friend”, and was not offering prayers in reality.

He said it was decided in a meeting on law and order that no one would be allowed to create chaos and indulge in violence.

“When we came to power, Pakistan was on the verge of default, but we did not accuse anyone and worked day and night for the betterment of the country,” as Prime Minister Shehbaz’s mission was to restore the country’s economy first, he said.

He quoted the IMF managing director as saying Pakistan would have defaulted if Shehbaz Sharif had not been there.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2024