ISLAMABAD: A senior police official of the northwestern district of Pakistan’s Punjab province has warned that culprits involved in last week’s protest of the opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will be held accountable.
District Police Officer Attock District Dr. Ghias Gul during a press conference on Monday said the district police have arrested 700 violent protestors while the identity of 89 is being ascertained.
He added that police also recovered tear gas shells, masks, batons and weapons from the fleeing protestors.
The officer added that there were trained individuals among the protestors, who resorted to firing and other acts of violence against the police.
The DPO revealed that Brazilian-made tear gas shells were recovered from PTI protesters, which are not available in Pakistan.
He said 147 police personnel were injured in the recent PTI protest, while 25 of them are in critical condition.
Dr Ghias Gul said the police demonstrated maximum restraint and no protestors were wounded. He said protection of people’s lives and property is the top priority of the Punjab police.
The interior ministry yesterday claimed that many illegal Afghan nationals and trained miscreants were among the participants of the PTI’s protest.
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.
According to the statement of the interior ministry, the PTI protest involved trained miscreants and many illegal Afghan nationals who spearheaded the riots and violent activities throughout the march. It said that those miscreants, employed as the violent vanguard, comprised of approximately 1500 hard-core fighters were working directly under absconder and proclaimed offender Murad Saeed.
“This vanguard group, using militant tactics violently attacked the LEAs and breached the blocks with the help of government machinery paving the way for the second wave of vehicles and protestors to cross. It must be noted that LEAs personnel, despite sustaining grievous injuries, exhibited a high degree of restraint against these violent protesters led by trained miscreants,” it further said.
Minister for Information, Broadcasting, National Heritage and Culture Attaullah Tarar on Sunday at a press briefing dared the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to share the video evidence with the public which could prove that the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) had opened straight firing on its protestors who descended on Islamabad a couple of days ago.
He categorically rejected the propaganda being peddled by the PTI on social media regarding the direct firing of protestors, saying it was the PTI which brought professional criminals and Afghan Nationals to the protest to ensure that there would be bloodshed in the whole city.
He said that the Pakistan Institute of the Medical Sciences (PIMS) and Poly Clinic had already issued their press releases that clearly stated that no death occurred due to the firing of the law enforcement agencies.
