— Alleges ‘London plan’ aims to imprison him for a decade
LAHORE: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday said state installations were vandalized under a planned conspiracy, alleging that operators of intelligence agencies had been involved in arson and shooting in some areas during the May 9 violent protests, which were triggered following his arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust case.
His statement comes shortly after the military’s top brass vowed to try protesters and their abettors under relevant laws, including the Pakistan Army Act and the Official Secrets Act, after PTI workers and supporters stormed military installations on May 9, which the army dubbed as “Black Day”.
In a tweet from his official handle on Monday, the former premier said his party has “ample amount of evidence” to prove that agencies’ men carried out arson and shootings during the protests to blame it on PTI.
Following the arrest of Khan, who has criticised the military since his ouster in April last year, the PTI workers stormed the military installations and ransacked the Lahore’s Corps Commander house, originally known as Jinnah House, among other public properties.
Without referring to the military’s statement, the PTI chief wrote: “We have ample amount of evidence to present to any independent inquiry that the arson and in some places shootings were done by agencies men who wanted to cause mayhem and blame it on PTI so the current crackdown would be justified.”
In a video statement, Khan said the government buildings and the Lahore Corps Commander’s House were ransacked under the “organised conspiracy”.
He said miscreants were infiltrated into the PTI protesters and instigated his workers, video evidence of which he said available with the party.
“I want an independent inquiry [into the vandalism]..,” he said, adding that this was all being done under the “London plan” to ban his party and put all the leaders behind bars.
Earlier in another tweet, he also shared videos stating that PTI Punjab chapter President Dr Yasmin Rashid and her sisters “clearly telling the protesters not to harm Jinnah house”.
“Clearly this was all stage managed by those who wanted to use this as a pretext to further crackdown on PTI, jail our workers and senior leadership along with me so that the assurances given to NS [Nawaz Sharif] in the London plan could be honoured,” he alleged.
Earlier in the day, Imran Khan has claimed that there are ongoing efforts to imprison him for 10 years under the sedition law.
Khan expressed his views through a series of tweets, where he alleged that the supposed “London plan” has been revealed, with the intention of humiliating him by incarcerating his wife, Bushra Maneka.
Khan further said that once he is imprisoned, a crackdown on PTI leaders and workers would follow, culminating in the ban of the largest and only federal party in Pakistan.
In addition, he said that not only PTI members but also civilians were being deliberately subjected to torture. “Meanwhile, as we speak, houses are being broken in and shamelessly police is manhandling the women of the houses,” he said.
“Never has the sanctity of chadar and chaar dewaari been violated the way it is being done by these criminals,” he lamented, alleging that the aim was to instil “so much fear in people” that they would not come out to protest if he were re-arrested.
He also predicted the internet would be suspended again on the same day.
Regarding the protest staged by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) outside the Supreme Court, Khan dismissed it as a pressure tactic. He asserted that the protest was aimed at influencing the chief justice of Pakistan, in order to prevent a constitutionally-aligned verdict in the Punjab elections.
Khan drew attention to a historical incident, referring to the brutal attack on the Supreme Court in 1997 by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which compelled the then chief justice, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, to resign.
