ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government on Monday formed a joint task force (JTF) to identify and locate perpetrators involved in a massive anti-state malicious propaganda campaign.
The development comes after opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) claimed that at least 12 party supporters died in Islamabad as a result of firing by law enforcement agencies (LEAs) during the party’s last week protest.
The government has repeatedly rejected the claims saying that security personnel were deployed to counter the violent protestors without live ammunition.
It is pertinent to mention that the PTI, in the early hours of Wednesday (November 27) announced that it was calling off its Islamabad protest sit-in “for the time being”, after a government action in the city’s Red Zone ended in the party leadership’s quick retreat.
The interior ministry on Sunday stated social media accounts of the PTI resorted to planned and coordinated massive fake propaganda of deaths caused by LEAs so as to divert attention from this senseless, violent and failed activity.
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It added the major hospitals of Islamabad have rubbished reports of alleged gunshots and casualties inflicted by LEAs.
According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), recent incidents of terrorism and vandalism, following which a campaign has been orchestrated to discredit the State of Pakistan in general and security forces in particular.
“Multiple domestic and foreign-based media platforms are being used to perpetrate concocted, baseless and inciting news implicating the government of committing serious human rights violations,” it said.
It said that the campaign was aimed at creating a serious law and order situation and instigating provincialism and ethnic cleavages for specific vested political interests.
“To attract foreign audience, perpetrators of this inimical campaign attempted to create serious human rights violations through fictitious violent images and contents,” the PMO said.
According to the PMO, the JTF would track and trace individuals/ groups, whether in Pakistan or abroad, involved in this malicious campaign and bring them to justice as per the law of the land.
The task force will also propose steps to bridge policy gaps and will present its findings within 10 days.
The JTF would be headed by PTA Chairman (retired) General Major Hafeezur Rehman, and comprise eight others.
