ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has claimed that Imran Khan is planning to orchestrate bloodshed in the federal capital during his long march.
“Khan either wants the marchers to clash with security personnel or his own hired gunmen may kill people and blame the deaths on the law enforcement agencies”, Sanaullah claimed at a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday.
Sanaullah played a recorded audio conversation between what he claimed was a PTI leader, Ali Amin Gandapur, and a man whose identity he said was not being revealed at the moment.
In the audio clip, Gandapur is purportedly heard discussing the presence of guns on the border between Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The identified man assures him of his preparedness.
Sanaullah claimed that similar conversations were recorded among other smaller criminal groups.
He urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to arrest these men who he said were present in the province. He said that the federal government had also written to the Punjab government.
Sanaullah also claimed that armed gangs were being mobilized in Punjab’s Gujrat, a region considered a stronghold of PMLQ, the ally of Imran Khan’s PTI.
The interior minister opened his press conference by referring to a presser held by Faisal Vawda, a key PTI leader.
Earlier this week, Vawda had also said that he feared a bloodbath at the march. He has since been booted out of the party.
Sanaullah said that Khan had managed to mislead some of the Pakistanis and urged people to stop their children from attending PTI long march.
He said despite misleading people Khan had failed to draw large numbers at the march and out of a city of 11 million people only a few thousand had participated in the march in Lahore.
Sanaullah repeatedly said that Imran Khan was playing a very dangerous game.
Responding to questions from reporters, the minister ruled out the possibility of holding talks with the PTI, who he said was amassing guns.
