Dar accuses Imran of planning May 9 attack

Former aide says Imran Khan used PTI workers as human shield to prevent his arrest

ISLAMABAD:

In an explosive interview, former prime minister Imran Khan’s aide Usman Dar has claimed that the May 9 attacks were planned at meetings chaired by the PTI chief at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore and that Imran had himself given instructions for targeting military installations.

Dar, who was regarded as one of the trusted lieutenants of the former premier, had reportedly gone underground after the incidents of vandalism that followed Imran Khan’s arrest from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on the morning of May 9.

The politician from Sialkot who served as the head of the PTI’s Tiger Force, an organization comprising young volunteers, as well as the former premier’s Special Assistant on Youth Affairs, however, reemerged on Wednesday in the show of a TV host to level serious allegations against Imran Khan.

“[At the meetings at Zaman Park] it was discussed that we should attack state institutions if needed in order to put pressure on them,” Dar said, while admitting that the meetings were chaired by the PTI chief.

He said there were two camps in the party. One of them called for adopting a reconciliatory approach towards state institutions. However, Imran Khan was inclined towards the narrative of the hawks who were in favor of taking the state institution head on, he said.

He specifically mentioned the names of PTI leaders like Murad Saeed, Hammad Azhar and Azam Swati, who, he claimed, wanted the PTI chairman to adopt an anti-establishment stance.

The politician, who during the interview announced quitting both the PTI and politics, said a narrative was built in the party that the arrest of the party chairman should be thwarted at all cost and the PTI workers started swarming to Imran’s residence to prevent this eventuality.

He said the events that transpired at the Judicial Complex in Islamabad and Zaman Park were the result of this mental conditioning.

When the host asked if the party chief wanted to use workers as human shields, Dar replied in affirmative.

Usman Dar stated that the long march of October 2022 was organized by the party to prevent General Asim Munir's appointment as the army chief.

He revealed that the purpose of the events on May 9 was to exert pressure on the military and remove General Asim Munir from his position.  Dar said Imran Khan was himself responsible for the situation of the PTI, which, he said “is in the state of disintegration.

This interview which took the traditional and social media by storm was followed by a video message by Usman Dar’s mother. The elderly lady claimed that Usman Dar was made to speak against the PTI chairman at gunpoint.

Addressing PML-N leader Khawaja Asif, who also hails from Sialkot, she said Usman Dar had announced quitting the party but not she had not.

“Now I will fight you in the political arena. I dare you to contest [the election] against me and I will make an example of the Lion [PML-N’s election symbol].”

Earlier, Usman Dar’s elder brother Umar Dar also issued a video statement in which he claimed that his brother was brutally tortured “after his arrest”. He said: “We are political workers and should not be treated like militants.”