Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif blames Imran Khan for mayhem by his supporters

By Press Trust of India: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday blamed his predecessor Imran Khan for the mayhem by his supporters following his arrest ultimate week.

“The roots of the mutinous attack on the state, its symbols & sensitive installations on May 9 lie in the contents of Imran Niazi’s speeches over the past one year. He has liberally deployed religious imagery to brand his political agitation as a war between truth & falsehood,” Sharif tweeted.

The Prime Minister was referring to the violent protests following the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman on May 9 that led to quite a lot of deaths and dozens of navy and state installations being destroyed by the protesters.

For the first time in Pakistan’s historic previous, the protesters stormed the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and likewise torched the Corps Commander’s dwelling in Lahore.

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The premier acknowledged that Khan “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 for violence we witnessed on May 9.” Sharif requested everyone to “listen to his (Khan) speeches & you will get your answers”.

In one different tweet, Sharif requested the authorities to arrest these involved in violence.

“My direction to the law enforcement agencies is that they should leave no stone unturned to bring those involved in the incidents of vandalism, arson & violence to justice. At the same time, they should make sure that no innocent person gets punished,” he acknowledged.

His assertion comes as police have made scores of arrests to hold to justice all these answerable for assaults on civilian and navy installations.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sharif vowed to hold to justice the planners and leaders of the violent protests that targeted navy installations and “disrespected martyrs” as he termed the incidents of May 9 as a result of the “darkest chapter” throughout the nation’s historic previous.

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