Imran responsible for May 9 attacks: PM

PM says PTI chief has been relentlessly maligning armed forces

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said the roots of the mutinous attack on the state, its symbols and sensitive installations on May 9 lie in the speeches that former prime minister Imran Khan has made since his ouster in April last year.

“He [Imran] has liberally deployed religious imagery to brand his political agitation as a war between truth and falsehood,” Shehbaz said Wednesday in a post on Twitter.

“He has relentlessly maligned and attacked the armed forces and the sitting army chief and very cunningly prepared his cult with the slogans of ‘Haqeeqi Azadi’ aimed at inciting them [to] violence [as] we witnessed on May 9,” he added.

Widespread protests broke out on May 9 after paramilitary Rangers arrested Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan from premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a whirlwind raid.

The protestors vandalized public and state properties and even attacked some military installations—rioting that was followed by a harsh crackdown against the PTI leaders and workers that still continues.

"Listen to his speeches and you will get your answers," the prime minister tweeted with the hashtag #SayNoTo9thMay.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz also took to Twitter to castigate the “dishonest” people who described the ongoing crackdown against the PTI as a crackdown against “a political party.”

 “The PTI always was a gang that was given birth to for wrong reasons—violence, destruction and foul play. It never stood for anything else.”

She said May 9 incidents occurred because the PTI was allowed to operate “in the garb of a political party, unhindered and unchecked”.

Responding to Imran’s tweet that police had surrounded his house and that he feared that it was his “last tweet”, she advised him to “repent to Allah” for the atrocities that he committed to the innocent.

“Apologize to [PML-N supreme leader] Nawaz Sharif and everyone whom you have falsely accused and hurt. These knots which you are supposed to untie with your teeth were tied by you.”

Addressing a news conference, Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said military installations, and public and private properties were attacked on May 9 under a “well thought-out plan” which comes under the purview of “sedition and treason”.

“Imran Khan is the mastermind behind instigating armed groups who attacked sensitive military and civilian installations and desecrated the memorials of Ghazis and martyrs on May 9,” the minister said.

She said it was decided in a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) on May 16 that May 9 would be observed as “Black Day” every year to condemn those who had attacked the country.

“What the armed groups of the PTI did on May 9, the arch enemy of Pakistan could not dare to do in 75-year history,” she added.

“Under Imran Khan’s well-thought-out planning, the PTI’s armed groups and planted goons attacked the military installations and other important buildings,” she said, adding even hospitals, ambulances, patients and schools were not spared.

The PTI chief has been consistently denying involvement of his party in the incidents that unfolded on May 9, calling for a judicial probe.