Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Thursday termed the May 9 army installation attacks part of a planned and coordinated strategy, saying it accounted for a rebellion of the state.
“Four people were killed…people were killed in Peshawar, in Faisalabad; they were armed,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
“The messages that were running on social media and on telephone and all that. All those messages were directing the rioters or the PTI workers to go to Corps Commander’s House [in Lahore], the GHQ, to the ISI office in Faisalabad, and the airbase in Mianwali,” he added.
He went on to add that “this is actually a rebellion against the state; this is not something ordinary.”
“He [Imran Khan] is not a political workers, he is an opportunist…he is something of a demon invented by the people who brought him into power in 2018…it rigged the elections.”
“He thinks that the people who have created him, they must keep on supporting him because he is their creation,” the minister maintained.
Protests against the arrest of Pakistan’s former PM Imran Khan amounted to a “rebellion against the state,” Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Al Jazeera 👇 pic.twitter.com/yYWngOHGXZ
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 25, 2023
Riots broke out in multiple cities as PTI workers engaged in scuffles with law enforcers after Imran Khan’s arrest from the Islamabad High Court premises on Tuesday.
The party called for protests shortly after the arrest, with people taking to the streets and blocking the thoroughfares.
A mob attempted to barge into GHQ, while some were seen kicking and slamming the gate. Also, Corps Commander Lahore’s residence was attacked and the premises was put on fire by violent protesters.
Another group, apparently of protesters, was seen gathering outside the Frontier Corps headquarters in Peshawar, and now the PM orders arrests.
In another instance, caught on camera, military vehicles were seen being pelted with stones by another mob at the scene.
Khan was arrested by Rangers in the Al-Qadir Trust case, by a heavy force of the paramilitary personnel from the premises of the courtroom where he had appeared to secure pre-arrest bail in multiple FIRs registered against him, followed by May 9 violent protests.
