ISLAMABAD: Any effort to create rifts between the armed forces and the masses "won't be tolerated," the Pakistan army chief said on Sunday, amid a crackdown on an online campaign against the country's powerful military.
The statement comes after days of the online campaign targeting the army and the judiciary, following the ouster of prime minister Imran Khan in a no-trust vote on April 10.
Khan said the move by opposition parties to oust him was orchestrated by the United States. The former premier and his supporters have since variously expressed disappointment that the military and the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, did not support Khan against the alleged foreign plot.
Anti-army and anti-judiciary hashtags remained top trends on social media platforms over the last few days. One trend calling for General Bajwa to step down as army chief amassed millions of tweets and ran for four days straight.
The social media campaign has since drawn a sharp response from the army’s top command.
"Misinformation and propaganda threaten state integrity, requiring timely and unified response to effectively counter speculations and rumours," the Pakistani military's media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), quoted General Bajwa as saying on his visit to Lahore Garrison Sunday.
"Army draws its strength from people and any effort to create wedge between army and population won’t be tolerated."
Hostile forces had been trying this for a long time but they would not succeed, the army chief said, while interacting with garrison officers and veterans in two separate sessions.
The statement by the army chief came amid arrests of a few social media users on charges of making derogatory remarks against the military in a crackdown that has drawn condemnation from rights activists.
The cybercrime wing of the civilian-led Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been leading the crackdown, which Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has labelled as “political victimization.”
