By Our Staff Reporter/UNS
ISLAMABAD :Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf in the early morning of Wednesday called off protest in Islamabad D-chowk after huge operation by law enforcing agencies and security forces.
Following a day of clashes between security forces and protesters in the city’s Red Zone ended in the party leadership’s hasty retreat.According hospitals sources in capital many killed and over 80 injured in the Wednesdays’ clashes in Islamabad.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder’s spouse Bushra Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur reportedly fled D-Chowk as authorities launched a grand operation against the protesters the sources said.
Police fired tear gas shells at PTI protesters while gunshots were also heard, amid skirmishes between security personnel and protesters.
As per sources, both Bushra Bibi and KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur fled in the same vehicle as an Islamabad police squad persued them.
Earlier, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi handed over authority to police to tackle the PTI protesters.
Mohsin Naqvi accused Bushra Bibi of orchestrating all the chaos that led to loss of life and property in Islamabad, saying that ‘One woman’ behind all the loss of life and material.
As PTI supporters inched towards the heavily barricaded D-Chowk late on Tuesday, the police and security forces employed intense teargas shelling to disperse the protesters.
The late-night retreat by the PTI leadership, including Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, came after the latter was heard telling the protesters “to go home, have dinner and return tomorrow”.
In the early hours of Wednesday, a press release shared by the party on its official X account read: “In view of the government’s brutality and the government’s plan to turn the capital into a slaughterhouse for unarmed citizens, [we] announce the suspension of the peaceful protest for the time being.”
It added that future plan of action would be announced “in light of the directions” of its incarcerated founder Imran Khan after the party’s political and core committees presented their “analyses of the state brutality” to him.
The statement, issued by the party spokesperson, condemned the alleged “killing” and “terror and brutality against peaceful protesters in the name of an operation”.
The party appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi to take suo motu notice of the alleged “brutal murder of martyred [party] workers” and order legal action against the prime minister and interior minister as well as Islamabad and Punjab police chiefs for “attempt to murder”.
