Salman Raja claims 20 PTI supporters killed in Islamabad protest
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja has claimed that at least 20 people lost their lives during the party’s “do-or-die” protest in Islamabad yesterday.
The PTI leader’s statement comes hours after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi rubbished the PTI’s claims about casualties among its supporters during the security forces’ crackdown in the federal capital. Naqvi, while talking to the media earlier today, termed social media reports claiming that 33 bodies were brought to a hospital as “propaganda” and challenged the former ruling party to provide the names of the deceased.
“At least 20 supporters of the PTI were killed in yesterday’s protest in Islamabad. We have complete bio-data and videos of eight of them,” the PTI leader said in a video statement released on social media on Wednesday.
“And, details about the remaining others will be released to the media.”
Raja alleged that the former ruling party was being denied access to its workers receiving medical treatment at hospitals in Islamabad.
He further accused that hospitals in the federal capital were being instructed to destroy relevant records, with directives ordering them not to provide families with the records of their deceased or injured relatives.
The PTI’s secretary-general announced that the Imran Khan-led party would take legal action, saying, “We will approach the courts against the government, the ministry of interior, and the interior minister.”
Following a midnight crackdown on the PTI’s demonstrators, law enforcers effectively dispersed the PTI workers. After the action by the law enforcers, the protesters dispersed and Bushra Bibi and KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur fled to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Later, the PTI issued a press release from its central media cell in the early hours of Wednesday, announcing a “temporary suspension” of its “do-or-die” protest.
The Imran Khan-led party’s protest was staged against the “illegal” incarceration of the PTI founder, other party leaders and workers, the “stolen mandate” in the February 8 general elections and the 26th Constitutional Amendment.
