ISLAMABAD: As the authenticity of the alleged death certificates of the party supporters circulating on social media comes under question, the PTI demanded a judicial commission to investigate the November 26 crackdown.

The PTI claimed that at least 12 party supporters were killed in Islamabad and death certificates of three activists allegedly issued by the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and Polyclinic hospitals were being circulated on social media. The names on these documents matched the list of the deceased marchers who allegedly died in the crackdown.

The alleged death certificate of Mardan’s resident, Sardar Ali, 31, shows that he died on November 26. The provisional diagnosis at the time of admission showed that he died because of firearm injuries. The time of the death is 8:30pm on November 26.

A senior Pims doctor was reluctant to identify it as genuine because of anomalies in the document.

Party seeks judicial probe over crackdown in Islamabad

“I have a number of doubts about the certificate. First of all, the time of death is 8:30pm. Everyone knows that the operation was started late at night, and at 8:30pm the PTI leadership was addressing the marchers… Moreover, the death certificate has been signed by Dr Seema Yousuf, who is a gynaecologist. A gynaecologist can be in the Mother and Child Hospital, but what she was doing in the main hospital,” he asked.

“If claims of 150 casualties are considered correct there would have been over a thousand injured persons,” he opined.

According to the doctor, as many as 66 officials of the law enforcement agencies and 36 civilians were brought to the hospital with injuries. As management of the hospital was reluctant to comment, a female doctor of Pims said that apparently the certificate was fake and suggested a probe.

“I cannot understand why management of the hospital is keeping mum because it is creating doubts and everyone in the hospital is thinking that the allegation of PTI may carry weightage,” he said.

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One of the alleged death certificates is of 24-year-old Abdul Mubeen, a resident of Abbottabad who died because of a gunshot wound to his chest.

The time of death is 5:12pm on November 26. The third alleged death certificate is of Anees Shahzad, 20, a resident of Islamabad. He was admitted to the hospital at 3:41pm and died at 5pm on November 26.

A doctor of Polyclinic, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the time of death in both cases puzzled him as the operation blamed for the deaths of supporters had not even started at the time.

“We suggest investigation… so that the situation would become clear,” he said.

It is worth mentioning that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has time and again claimed that no person was killed in the operation as law enforcers did not use live ammunition. Similarly, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar also claimed that there were no casualties while the management of both Pims and Polyclinic hospitals claimed that they did not get dead bodies.

On the other hand, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, in a televised interview, claimed that he was aware of two persons from his constituency who were injured in the crackdown.

As the silence of the management of hospitals compounded the already murky situation, a representative from the health authorities said that they had been barred from speaking on the issue as the interior ministry was dealing with it.

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A PTI spokesperson in a statement alleged that the government and its officials were solely responsible for the violence and killings that occurred during the protest in Islamabad, alleging that efforts were underway to distort reality by spreading falsehoods.

They demanded a high-level judicial commission to uncover the truth and hold those responsible accountable for their actions.

He stressed that the people of Pakistan would not forget the alleged ‘Islamabad massacre’ and would not forgive those who were responsible for it.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2024