Deceased PTI worker's father 'abducted', claims Fawad

PTI leader suspects Bilal's family's statement of 'forgiveness' to be released soon

LAHORE:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry on Friday claimed that slain party worker Ali Bilal's father was abducted after his funeral while other members of the family were in police custody.

Fawad took to Twitter to share the news and quoted the PTI's lawyers wing as his source. He expressed fears that Bilal's case would suffer the same fate as many before him, "a video will be released from police custody stating that we [Bilal's family] forgive Mohsin Naqvi and the police". However, the former minister warned, "this country will not forget".

The PTI claims that Ali Bilal, more commonly known to his comrades as Zil-e-Shah, died of police violence and torture after personnel launched a crackdown on party workers and supporters protesting near PTI Chairman Imran Khan's residence in Zaman Park on Wednesday.

The former ruling party had announced a rally from Zaman Park to Data Darbar to mark the launch of its election campaign. But violence broke out after police moved to Zaman Park to prevent the demonstrators from advancing towards Mall Road. Footage of the clashes, shared on social media by both sides, showed police resorting to the use of force against PTI workers and rounding up several protestors. In some clips, PTI workers were also seen resorting to violence, such as damaging police vehicles and attacking policemen.

The PTI chief shared the news of the death of the party worker on a social media platform. “Ali Bilal unarmed & our dedicated & passionate PTI worker murdered by Punjab police,” Imran wrote on Twitter.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2023.