- Party says neither it is not a military or armed party, nor it willing to let its citizens be ‘slaughtered by state murderers’
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Wednesday officially called off its protest, claiming that “dozens” of its workers were shot at directly and killed, of which it said it had the details of eight and listed their purported names.
In a press release issued, the party said it was “not a military or armed party and neither does it consider itself to be willing to have its citizens slaughtered by state murderers”.
Highlighting that its supporters cleared “all difficulties, obstacles, violence, savage barbarism” to reach D-Chowk but “would not allow the bodies of its citizens to pile up”.
The statement said that the PTI had a “long history peaceful political struggle and kept blocking the way of the government plan to pile up bodies since November 24”.
The party also stated the dates of previous protests since its 2022 ouster where it said it “failed each of the government’s attempts to drench every peaceful protest in blood” — three from 2022 and four from 2023.
While calling off the protest, the PTI also reaffirmed its intention to “keep struggling” for “haqeeqi azadi” (actual freedom).
The PTI paid tribute to citizens and its workers for coming to Islamabad from all across the country for the protest, as well as overseas Pakistanis who heeded its call for global protests. It further said it was immensely grateful to the residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi for the hospitality they offered to the party convoys.
The PTI also shared a photo of a “list of injured persons in Federal Government Polyclinic, Islamabad” on November 26 “during political protest”, which listed the details of 26 people with “gunshot” wounds and two others who succumbed to their injuries.
The two men who died were aged 20 and 24 years, according to the list, while those injured were aged between 19 and 50 years and belonged to mostly KP, with a few from the federal capital.
The PTI called the document a “partial list of those admitted to a single hospital in Islamabad”.
In a separate post earlier today, the PTI said a “massacre has unfolded in Pakistan at the hands of security forces”.
It accused the armed security forces of launching a “violent assault on peaceful PTI protesters in Islamabad, firing live rounds with the intent to kill as many people as possible”. It went on to compare last night’s clashes to the violence in East Pakistan in 1971.
“The rulers have learned nothing from history and are prepared to destroy the country to cling to their illegitimate power,” the post went on to say. “With hundreds dead and countless injured, the interior minister’s threat to kill and then the declaration of ‘victory’ over slaughtered innocents is enough evidence of the regime’s inhumanity.”
PTI called on the international community to condemn the “atrocity and the erosion of democracy and humanity in Pakistan”, as well as take action against it.
