Where are graves and bodies, Dar questions PTI claims

ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif made it clear on Saturday that the Centre had no intention to impose governor’s rule in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, being ruled currently by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the PTI tried to sink the country’s economy. “PTI launched a third onslaught on the Centre which was thwarted.”

Rubbishing the PTI’s claim about causalities at the hands of law enforcers, the minister said: “Security personnel were martyred during the PTI’s protest but found no evidence of any citizen’s death.” He said: “The KP government attacked Centre with [official] weapons and equipment.”

He advised the provincial government to focus on the law and order situation in the province in general and in Parachinar in particular.

Separately, Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Saturday the state had decided that all ‘miscreants’ involved in the recent violent protests would be tried speedily and severe punishments would be awarded to them.

He told a news conference in Rawalpindi and said in a statement issued earlier that the state had decided that no one would be given concessions, so that an example could be set for future.

Referring to PTI leaders’ press conference held the other day, he said a series of allegations were levelled by the party about killing of its activists by the law-enforcers. However, three days have passed, but the party had not been able to present a single picture or video of the firing.

The PTI leaders, he pointed out, presented contradictory figures about the death of protesters, but PIMS and Polyclinic hospitals said that no bodies were brought to them. “You are playing old pictures and AI-generated footages,” he told the PTI leaders.

“Why did they not share the videos of their protesters firing and throwing shells at the police? Why was there a need to bring a false narrative about the bodies? A picture was also shared with blood on the road in the Blue Area, after which I went to that road and made a video and showed every inch where there was not even a single spot of blood,” he noted. Tarar said that a man, who had reportedly fallen from a container during the PTI’s protest in the federal capital, was injured but was completely fine now. He refuted outright claims circulating online about his death.

Tarar lamented that propaganda was done that a person was offering prayers and was killed by pushing him down. However, he made it clear that the man was a resident of Mandi Bahauddin and was completely fine. His video had emerged, he got hurt on the arm and had bandages as well.

Tarar condemned the humiliation of senior lawyer Salman Akram Raja in the PTI meeting recently and said “he is my teacher; Sahibzada Hamid Raza is the son of a great father; he was also treated inappropriately; we still respect his father’s grave”.

The minister said there was an internal turmoil with [Bushra] ‘Bibi’ wanting dead bodies, which were not found. Therefore, these people started propaganda. He alleged these people even eat apples and post on social media, so where are pictures and videos of the dead? And where are their graves, he asked.

“What will happen to the 35 Afghan citizens, who have been arrested; the weapons that have been found from your people; you will know all this.

“I have also told journalists belonging to the international media that all this is despicable propaganda; firearms are not given to the forces in any protest. Do they have evidence, we have shown CCTV footage of their people firing and attacking officials,” the minister asked.

He pointed out that there is a video available of their escape. Why is there no firing in it and why are people not seen dying?

The minister claimed that many of their important leaders were absent from the protest. There was an Aleema group and a Bushra Bibi group in the PTI; today Bushra Bibi’s spokesperson Mashal Yousafzai was removed from her post.

Attaullah Tarar said: “Whenever Pakistan starts developing, these miscreants come to the streets.”

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar Saturday also questioned the PTI claims about protesters allegedly killed by the law-enforcers. He said that stories about gunshot wounds and indiscriminate firing by the law enforcement agencies were malicious and absolutely false.

Taking to X, the foreign minister asked, “Where are the graves and dead bodies? The so-called protestors came armed with heavy ammunition and tear gas canisters. The mob was determined to create chaos and ready to kill.” He added that the security and law enforcement agencies exercised maximum restraint with patience despite deaths within their ranks. “PTI leaders abandoned their workers and are now developing a ridiculous and lies-based narrative of state brutality,” he tweeted.

Separately, PMLN parliamentary leader in Senate and Chairman Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs Irfan Siddiqui took strong exception to PTI leader Sardar Latif Khosa’s statement on Nov-26 protest call. He said “if a lie is made into a political weapon, there is no limit to it”.

On social media platform ‘X’, he said, “Senior lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa first revealed that “278” PTI workers were killed by the security forces”, and then said in a TV show, “In the entire human history, there is no such instance of massacre. This bloodshed has left far behind Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir and Israeli massacres in Palestine”.

Irfan Siddiqui said India and Israel never imagined that such a worthy advocate would have been available to them from the PTI ranks in the anti-Pakistan campaign. “Does the incompetent group that shames Pakistan all over the world by telling unfathomable lies have the right to be called a political party,” he questioned.

Also, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari claimed exposing false propaganda of the PTI by sharing a video of a person, who was falsely declared dead. She said after yet another failed rebellion, the “vultures of the PTI movement” are resorting to present fake videos and images. The propaganda cell of PTI was desperately trying to sell lies and search for dead bodies. She questioned whether these lies and propaganda should be given a free pass. Such actions were a disgrace, and strict action would be taken against those spreading fake news and false propaganda.