Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Usman Dar while sharing shocking details of May 9 incident has said the planning for the May 9 events unfolded at PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore’s Zaman Park, and Khan himself directed strategies, including targeting sensitive installations, in the event of his arrest.
He asserted that the primary aim of the May 9 attacks was to exert pressure on the military to remove Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir from his post.
Dar, who had gone into hiding following the tragic events of May 9, said in his first interview with a private TV channel on Wednesday that October 2022 long march was also organised by his party to prevent the appointment of General Asim Munir as the army chief.
He revealed that Khan employed PTI workers as human shields to evade arrest and manipulated them into avoiding law enforcement. Dar emphasised that the subsequent incidents at the Judicial Complex in Islamabad and Zaman Park were direct outcomes of this mindset.
Moreover, Dar disclosed that in the event of Imran Khan’s arrest, instructions were issued to attack sensitive installations within the country. Astonishingly, it was Imran Khan himself who provided these directives, he added.
Also read: JIT finds Imran ‘mastermind’ of May 9 riots
Dar further claimed that PTI workers from all over the country were gathered outside Zaman Park to brainstorm and strategise for this purpose.
He also accused PTI Chairman Imran Khan of supporting an anti-state narrative, adding that Khan bears personal responsibility for the current situation within the PTI.
In the aftermath of Khan’s arrest on May 9, 2023 in Al-Qadir Trust case, a wave of protests stared and continued for three consecutive days.
The PTI workers on the direction of the PTI leadership attacked the Jinnah House, GHQ building, Core Headquarters, ISI offices, airbases, state installations, monuments of the martyred, Askari Tower, Military Library, residences of the armed forces officers, army selection centre, petrol pumps, set ablaze public properties and attacked several other sensitive places of the armed forces.
A joint investigation team (JIT), constituted to probe into the May 9 incidents under the supervision of DIG Investigation Imran Kishwar, submitted its finding before an anti-terrorism court last week, declaring Imran Khan and the top PTI leadership guilty of May 9 incidents by inciting people through a fake stance.
“Imran Khan, with the cooperation of central, provincial and local leaderships, constituted this plan to push Pakistan towards civil war and the public was incited through fake and self-created stories,” the JIT report revealed.
The PTI used public power for its vested interests so that the then top military officers, federal, and provincial governments could be forced to tender their resignations.