- Over 50 PTI staff injured in shelling, claims KP chief minister.
- Gandapur says bullets had been fired each three kilometers on them.
- He salutes residents of KP, Rawalpindi Division over their help.
PESHAWAR: Commenting on the incidents of clashes between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) staff and police in Rawalpindi a day in the past, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur mentioned his celebration would reply to each bullet, shell and baton that may be used towards its supporters.
In a press release on Sunday, the firebrand PTI chief claimed bullets had been fired on three of their staff and whereabouts of one among them couldn’t be traced.
“Greater than 50 PTI staff have been injured in shelling as shells and bullets had been fired each three kilometres on us,” he mentioned.
The KP Chief Minister Gandapur mentioned this after returning to Peshawar because the PTI protest in Rawalpindi was “known as off” amid violent clashes between protesters and riot police close to Liaquat Bagh.
The Gandapur-led convoy remained caught on the interchange for a number of hours attributable to closure of roads because the authorities had positioned containers at Burhan Interchange in an try and thwart PTI’s protest.
Addressing the contributors, the KP chief govt directed them to return to Peshawar and castigated the federal government for not granting PTI its “constitutional proper”.
Vowing to come back again with “all sources”, he regretted that the police fired teargas and rubber bullets on the protesters.
However, Gandapur mentioned, scores of police officers had been caught by the celebration activists however he rescued them.
“They [police] have set a precedent of firing bullets […] We even have weapons,” he acknowledged.
In the meantime, he saluted the residents of KP and Rawalpindi Division over their help for the previous ruling celebration.
PTI staff demand Gandapur’s resignation
Gandapur’s announcement to postpone the protest on Saturday drew sturdy opposition from the protesters as they refused to return and demanded his resignation.
The PTI staff surrounded the KP chief minister’s car and staged a protest towards the celebration management at Burhan Interchange.
Nevertheless, the protest was known as off after PTI chief Azam Swati’s intervention.
Talking to the protesters, the previous federal minister mentioned that they had cancelled the Rawalpindi protest on Imran Khan’s directions. “Now we have to observe his [PTI founder] directives.”
Earlier, the Punjab authorities had imposed Part 144 of the Code of Felony Process (CrPC) in Rawalpindi Division for 2 days, banning all political gatherings, sit-ins, rallies, protests, and related actions.
PTI initially deliberate to carry a public rally at Liaquat Bagh however transformed the occasion into an indication on the directives of the previous prime minister.
It additionally withdrew its utility searching for a no-objection certificates (NOC) to carry a rally from the Lahore Excessive Courtroom Rawalpindi bench.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Salman Akram Raja had been additionally detained on their approach to Rawalpindi close to Sector H-13 solely to be launched shortly.
In a press release issued earlier, the PTI mentioned Gohar and Salman had been travelling to Rawalpindi when the police stopped their car close to Sector H-13 and took them into custody. “They [law enforcers] took each the leaders away in a van.”
Following his launch, the PTI chief — whereas chatting with Geo Information — mentioned that the police requested them to return “as a substitute of heading to Rawalpindi”.
However, Rawalpindi police spokesperson mentioned that the town was on “excessive alert” and police personnel had been deployed on the metropolis’s entry and exit factors.
The spokesperson reiterated that no unlawful public gatherings can be permitted wherever within the metropolis and warned that strict motion can be taken towards any violations.
The Imran Khan-founded celebration, as a part of its months-long efforts to safe permission to carry public gatherings, has managed to carry two rallies in Islamabad and Lahore beneath strict situations in current weeks.