CM Gandapur resurfaces in Mansehra, says PTI sit-in ‘still ongoing’
After fleeing from the site of the PTI’s high-stakes Islamabad protest, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Wednesday resurfaced in Mansehra, where he assured his party workers that the “sit-in is still ongoing”.
After a day of clashes between security forces and protesters in the city’s Red Zone ended in the party leadership’s hasty retreat, the PTI announced in the early hours of Wednesday that it was calling off its planned protest sit-in “for the time being”.
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.
Addressing a press conference in the afternoon in Mansehra, CM Gandapur said the sit-in “is still ongoing”, adding that it would not end till Imran ordered so.
“People have died in this protest, we must pray for them,” the chief minister said during the press conference held at the residence of KP Speaker Babar Saleem Swati.
“We have been targets of violence,” he said, lamenting that the PTI was not given permission for protest whenever it sought one.
“When we gave the protest call, we said this would be peaceful. Imran Khan said we will go to D-Chowk peacefully, and we will not go ahead of D-Chowk where we are not permitted.
“[Imran] Khan sahib gave this call, and he said this protest will continue until I call it off,” CM Gandapur highlighted.
The chief minister remarked, “It is not necessary that every sit-in has people in it.”
“Unfortunately, our party has been cracked down upon, our mandate has been stolen. Ouur leader is in jail, our leader’s wife was thrown in jail,” Gandapur said, referring to Imran and Bushra, who was recently freed on bail after nine months in jail.
“We were going peacefully, talking peacefully, and in the end, the govt came in our path and inflicted violence on us. Why were bullets rained down on us?” the KP CM asked.
Terming the planned sit-in a “revolution”, the chief minister said: “If you try and stop it, people will come through other means.”
Speaking alongside Gandapur, National Assembly Opposition Leader Omar Ayub Khan alleged there was “an attack with a murderous intent” on Gandapur and Imran’s wife Bushra Bibi at D-Chowk, where they were leading their convoy.
“We are a democratic and peaceful party. We were shot at, which I gravely condemn,” the MNA said.
Ayub also called for an investigation into the deaths of two policemen and three Rangers personnel.
He claimed “rescuing” five policemen from Pathargarh in Islamabad. “We are not unjust but others are unjust to us in return,” he lamented.
Bushra Bibi, CM Gandapur and Ayub were set to address an “emergency” press conference at 11am today, according to Taimur Saleem Swati, senior vice president of PTI’s Hazara chapter. However, when the two men finally addressed the media, the former first lady was not seen alongside them.
