Islamabad, Pakistan – The Pakistani authorities has filed a collection of expenses, together with one associated to “terrorism”, towards former Prime Minister Imran Khan, his spouse, Bushra Bibi, and lots of of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) occasion employees after protests held in Islamabad this week.
Khan, Bibi and others have been accused of “terrorism”, violations of a regulation that restricts protests within the capital, assaults on police, abduction, interference in authorities affairs and defiance of Part 144, which prohibits gatherings of greater than 4 folks.
Authorities have already arrested practically 1,000 employees from Khan’s PTI occasion who travelled to Islamabad on Sunday to take part within the sit-in in response to their chief’s “remaining name” to protest towards the federal government.
Khan, the PTI’s founder, has been imprisoned since August 2023 and is going through dozens of prison circumstances. Bibi was additionally jailed for 9 months this yr earlier than being launched in October.
The protesters, who managed to achieve central Islamabad regardless of roadblocks arrange throughout the nation by the federal government, known as for Khan’s launch amongst different calls for. Bibi led the protest alongside Ali Amin Gandapur, the PTI chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
When protesters reached the deliberate website of the sit-in on Tuesday afternoon, paramilitary forces reportedly opened hearth to disperse the group.
Later that night, regulation enforcement launched a two-hour operation that cleared the realm. Each Bibi and Gandapur left for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that very same evening.
On Wednesday morning, the PTI issued an announcement saying the suspension of the sit-in for the “time being” and mentioned a minimum of eight of its supporters had been killed by authorities.
On Thursday, nonetheless, Data Minister Attaullah Tarar together with Planning Improvement Minister Ahsan Iqbal categorically rejected the assertion that regulation enforcement personnel used any stay munitions or that any PTI employee had died.
Tarar, talking at a information convention held in Islamabad for overseas media, mentioned hospital authorities confirmed that they didn’t obtain any our bodies.
“The well being division has issued two statements, one from Poly Clinic and one other from PIMS Hospital, stating there have been no lifeless our bodies,” Tarar mentioned, answering a question from Al Jazeera and referring to 2 of the most important public hospitals in Islamabad.
The casualty depend stays in dispute with PTI leaders issuing contradictory statements, alleging deaths starting from 10 to 200.
Hospital authorities have refused to share particulars of the injured and lifeless, telling Al Jazeera that they had been “forbidden” from sharing data, a cost that the federal government denied. The federal government added that pretend lists had been circulating on-line.
“There was a pretend listing printed on social media in regards to the injured and lifeless, however it’s incorrect. PTI is simply making an attempt to do politics on the lifeless and on the lookout for our bodies right here and there,” Tarar instructed the media on Thursday.
The controversy deepened when journalist Matiullah Jan, a vocal critic of Pakistan’s army, was arrested.
Jan had reportedly been investigating the alleged deaths in the course of the protest for his YouTube channel. An preliminary police report towards him accuses him of drug trafficking, “terrorism” and assaulting cops.
The federal government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), got here to energy in February after the PTI refused to type a authorities regardless of its candidates profitable probably the most Nationwide Meeting seats (93). The occasion alleged electoral rigging by the army to undermine its mandate.
The PMLN subsequently shaped a coalition authorities however has confronted fierce resistance from the PTI, which has staged 4 main protests in as many months, demanding Khan’s launch and difficult the credibility of the election outcomes.
