ISLAMABAD: Army chief General Asim Munir expressed his resolve on Saturday to bring all those responsible for targeting military installations in different Pakistani cities following ex-premier Imran Khan’s arrest on corruption charges earlier this week, adding the armed forces would not allow such violation of their sanctity anymore.
The army chief issued the statement while visiting the Corps Headquarters in Peshawar where he received a detailed briefing on the prevailing security situation and ongoing counterterrorism efforts in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The army’s media wing, ISPR, declared May 9, when the protests broke out, as “Black Day” for Pakistan, blaming Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party for accomplishing what even the country’s enemies had failed to do in the last 75 years.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also gave a 72-hour ultimatum to the authorities on Saturday to arrest the protesters involved in vandalizing and torching state properties, including the official residence of a top army general, and said he wanted them to be tried in an anti-terrorism court.
“The Armed Forces will not tolerate any further attempt of violating the sanctity and security of its installations or vandalism and resolved to bring to justice all the planners, abettors, instigators and executors of vandalism on the Black Day of 9th May,” the ISPR said in its statement about the army chief’s visit to Peshawar and his conversation with the officers.
Discussing the overall security situation, he said: “We shall continue with our endeavors of peace and stability, and there will be no room for spoilers of the process.”
Prime Minister Sharif also condemned PTI supporters for indulging in violence and chanting slogans against the country’s military.
“Attacking an institution, whose soldiers are working 24 hours to protect this country from enemies without thinking about their own lives, is condemnable,” he said, adding he was deeply sad to see Pakistani citizens acting like the enemies of the state.
Khan has distanced himself from the violent protests which took place while he was in the custody of the country’s anti-graft body. He said during his first public address since his release that his party believed in non-violent struggle and called for an “independent inquiry” into the incidents of vandalism under the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
