Midnight Crackdown A Massacre That Killed Hundreds: Imran Khan’s Sister Aleema | Exclusive

Last Updated:November 29, 2024, 17:40 IST

We are being told that a lot of people are dead, and the count could be as high as 200. It's a massacre, says Aleema Khanum on D Chowk crackdown

Ameena Khanum mourned the tragic deaths of protesters. (News18)

Aleema Khanum, sister of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader and former PM Imran Khan, called the government’s crackdown on the protest a “massacre by the Pakistan army". She said contrary to the official figures, 200-300 people were killed in D Chowk protests.

PTI supporters battled law enforcing agencies and succeeded in reaching the D Chowk for a sit-in as part of their protest march that started on Sunday. However, the Pakistan Army cracked down on them on Monday midnight.

Bushra Bibi and Gandapur had announced that the protesters would not go away until Khan, who had given the ‘final call’ for protest, was released from jail even as security personnel continued their efforts to move them from the D-Chowk, which is located close to several important government buildings: the Presidency, the PM Office, the Parliament, and the Supreme Court.

The 72-year-old former premier, who has been in jail since August last year, issued a ‘final call’ on November 13 for nationwide protests on November 24, denouncing what he termed as the stolen mandate, the unjust arrests of people and the passage of the 26th amendment, which he said has strengthened a “dictatorial regime".

Excerpts from the interview:

There are reports that hundreds or thousands of people were killed, but the government is maintaining that only six are killed in the crackdown…

Actually, at the moment, even after 24 hours, I’m in total shock. It is unbelievable. These were ordinary people. People have a constitutional right to come to the capital to protest. They were sitting. We were there. Families, women and children were there. These people didn’t come to create ruckus. They are not terrorists. They came for their rights, and they have a right to protest. They were on the road in the middle of the night. Tear gas is one thing. Around 3.30 pm, people told me live bullets were being fired from the buildings around the main road. They shot at people. I met people who had bullets in their shoulders, in their legs, and this is at 3.30 pm! They turned off all the lights. They hijacked the container which had lights and sounds to guide people to move away.

Tear gas is acceptable. People know the authorities to use tear gas. But live bullets, not even rubber bullets, came at us.

How many people lost their lives?

There were some people who were taking the bodies to the other province in Kp. They arrested the person. Their people, some of them who have died are from Balochistan, from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The authorities actually hijacked the bodies.

So you are saying that Army chief Asif Munir is completely running the show, not the elected PDM government is…

The problem is they are all responsible for it. You cannot disown or excuse yourself from anything. They cannot disown themselves from what has happened. Each one of them is responsible. Whether it’s Mohsen Naqvi who sent out a tweet, if you watch his tweet, the man should be ashamed of himself. They were threatening that they can arrest us. But you kill innocent people in the…dark! It was so dark. The firing came from all around. I don’t think even those firing understood what they were doing because they fired point blank into the darkness. A lot of people have died.

You are saying 200-300 people were killed?

We are being told that a lot of people are dead, and the count could be as high as 200. It’s a massacre.

You are saying this was a complete revolution?

It could be 200-300 deaths, and we don’t have a count yet. They’re hiding the bodies. They’ve hijacked the bodies. But this is a tragedy which has brought such a big shock. It’s a massacre. They massacred people in the middle of the night.

The protesters were resting on the green belts and on the roads. At 1.30 am, nobody could have been doing anything but sleeping or resting. They were exhausted. But you slaughtered them?

I think revolution happens when people decide that we do not accept a system of tyranny. That’s a revolution. And Imran Khan, who sat in jail for one-and-a-half years on bogus cases, when he was about to be released, he faced the court for two-and-a-half years. The judges were not that bad. They tried to stand up against the system of tyranny too… The cases are so bad, they had to give him relief. They said the day he was about to be released, they charged him for another case of a protest on the 28th of September. While he’s in jail, they charged him for being responsible for inciting the protest in which a policeman’s buttons, his shirt buttons were ripped off, and a car which was about to be burnt never got burnt. This is his charge. He’s in jail right now. He’s in jail for that charge.

So what does Imran Khan want now?

Khan’s demand was to release the illegally arrested protesters. It wasn’t about him. He repeatedly said, “Release all illegally arrested prisoners." That’s all he asked for. But the people themselves kept saying, “We’ve come for Imran Khan."

Imran Khan’s call was to his people — “You stand up for three." He has given three conditions throughout. You do not subjugate the judiciary. The Supreme Court, he says, has been hijacked. They have changed the rulings and regulations. In any country, you saw it in Israel, when they made some changes to the judiciary, everybody comes out to protest every weekend. That’s how people express their opinion. What’s wrong with people in Pakistan trying to express? They’re not terrorists. They were just expressing what they feel about their own country, they are citizens of this country. They’re not aliens. They’re not enemies. So first was, release all illegally arrested people. Second was, including civilians in military jail. Second was, a judiciary, the rule of law, establishment of rule of law. You do not hijack and subjugate the judiciary. And third was, return the stolen mandate. The Election Commission should take a decision.

It’s so blatant, and it should be decided by judges, by judicial commissions, by a team of judges that will take a decision because the evidence is all with the Election Commission. What is wrong with these demands? They are nothing personal. All his demands are for the country. And the people came out for that. You do not slaughter people. This was genocide. It was a massacre. We are so heartbroken. I tell you, I can’t move. Thinking of what they did last night, it was pitch dark. There was no light. They turned off every streetlight, every light on the road. It was so dark, and this slaughter took place in total darkness.

Is there any backchannel working for the release of Imran Khan?

It is a tragic day with the death of all those people. They were just innocent people, they came from all over Pakistan. We are heartbroken about this tragedy. The government has sealed the hospitals, nobody can access to them. Nobody knows where the dead are, they want to make sure that nobody finds out and people are searching for their loved ones right now. In the coming days, they will incite people. What’s going to happen next is not in anybody’s control…And the only thing being covered on all national news channels is that one policeman got injured because a stone was thrown at him. That is the biggest tragedy in discussion on the national television which are all totally under control of the establishment. I am saying that most probably they will put me in jail. I am supposed to be taken to prison as well…

Any plan of going to court against the police atrocities?

What court? That’s already been subjugated. They will not let us. With one hand, they try to offer and plead and the other, they abuse. They massacred Pakistanis. There is going to be a reaction to that I have no idea of.

Have you spoken to Imran Khan recently?

He is in prison, nobody can see him. For two days, they cancelled his court appearance. The cities were sealed. Nobody could move out of the city, even half way within a city. The jail was obviously closed and all roads were all sealed. Lahore was sealed. We haven’t seen him.

News world Midnight Crackdown A Massacre That Killed Hundreds: Imran Khan’s Sister Aleema | Exclusive