ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government on Sunday said it would hold social media users accountable for propagating “fake” deaths during anti-government protests by former prime minister Imran Khan’s party in Islamabad, reiterating that law enforcers deployed to disperse violent protesters did not have live ammunition.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party this week led thousands of supporters to Islamabad, seeking to pressure the government to release the ex-premier from jail. The protests resulted in clashes that Pakistan’s government says killed three paramilitary soldiers and a police officer, and injured hundreds of others. The PTI has named 12 people and says it has evidence they lost their lives during the crackdown, however, several PTI members have given varied accounts of casualties during the protests. Pakistani authorities deny the claims.
On Sunday, the Pakistani interior ministry said violent protesters “aggressively engaged LEAs repeatedly using fire arms and all sorts of other weaponry including steel sling shots, stun grenades, tear gas shells and nail studded batons” throughout the protest march from Peshawar to Islamabad. It said police and Rangers were employed without live ammunition to disperse the violent mobs, while army, deployed under Article 245 of the constitution to secure key government installations and foreign diplomats in the Red Zone, neither came in direct clash with the protesters, nor was it employed for riot control.
“Unfortunately, social media accounts of PTI resorted to planned and coordinated massive fake propaganda of deaths caused by LEAs (law enforcement agencies) so as to divert attention from this senseless, violent and failed activity. There have been multiple false claims of deaths ranging from tens to hundreds to thousands on social media as well as PTI political leadership and their official pages,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
“PTI and its social media propagandists are bent upon to create divisions and confusion within the society. Such elements, whether inside the country or abroad, will surely be held accountable under relevant laws and no one will be allowed to sow divisions, hatred and propagating fake news.”
It said major hospitals in Islamabad rubbished reports of alleged gunshot casualties inflicted by the LEAs after due diligence, but a “sustained fabricated social media campaign,” using old and AI-generated clips, was undertaken by the PTI.
Government functionaries, including ministers as well as Islamabad chief commissioner and senior police officials who were directly involved in these riot control operations, repeatedly explained and clarified the actual situation and events unfolding with credible evidence, according to the ministry.
“It may also be noted that use of lethal means by LEAs, if at all to be employed, was best suited at multiple enroute blocks rather than within Red Zone under complete media and public glare,” it said.
Khan’s PTI has staged several protests this year to demand the release of the ex-premier, who has been in jail since August last year on a slew of charges, as well as to challenge results of the Feb. 8 national election, which it says were manipulated to keep the party from coming to power in the country. The Pakistani government and election authorities deny this.
This week’s protest was by far the largest to grip the capital since the poll and the Pakistani government said it caused Rs192 billion per day indirect losses to the economy.
“It is concerning to note that 39 lethal weapons including 18 automatic weapons have been recovered from the violent protesters and that among the apprehended offenders there are more than three dozen paid aliens,” the interior ministry added.
Pakistan says will hold social media propagandists accountable over ‘fake’ protest deaths
https://arab.news/6gtdt
Pakistan says will hold social media propagandists accountable over ‘fake’ protest deaths
- Statement comes days after ex-PM Imran Khan’s party led supporters to Islamabad, resulting in clashes with law enforcers
- Government denies PTI’s account of casualties, says social media propagandists are bent upon creating divisions in country
Pakistan says multilateralism in peril, urges global powers to prioritize diplomacy over confrontation
- The country tells the UN international security system is eroding, asks rival blocs to return to dialogue
- It emphasizes lowering of international tensions, rebuilding of channels of communication among states
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan warned the world community on Monday that multilateralism was “in peril” amid rising global tensions, urging major powers to revive diplomacy and dialogue to prevent a further breakdown in international security.
Speaking at a UN Security Council briefing, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said the world was drifting toward confrontation at a time when cooperative mechanisms were weakening.
His comments came during a session addressed by Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen, chairing the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest regional security body.
Formed out of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, the OSCE was designed during the Cold War to reduce tensions, uphold principles of sovereignty and human rights and promote mechanisms for peaceful dispute resolution.
“Today, the foundational ethos of international relations, multilateralism, cooperation and indivisible security, as envisaged in the preamble of Helsinki Final Act, is perhaps facing its biggest challenge in decades,” Ahmed said. “The OSCE, too, is navigating a difficult geopolitical landscape, with conflict raging in the heart of Europe for nearly four years, depletion of trust and unprecedented strains on peaceful co-existence.”
He said a return to the “Helsinki spirit” of dialogue, confidence-building and cooperative security was urgently needed, not only in Europe but globally.
“This is not a matter of choice but a strategic imperative to lower tensions, rebuild essential channels of communication, and demonstrate that comprehensive security is best preserved through cooperative instruments, and not by the pursuit of hegemony and domination through military means,” he said. “Objective, inclusive, impartial, and principle-based approaches are indispensable for success.”
Ahmed’s statement came in a year when Pakistan itself fought a brief but intense war after India launched missile strikes at its city in May following a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the assault, an allegation Islamabad denied while calling for a transparent international investigation.
The Pakistani diplomat said the international system was increasingly defined by bloc politics, mistrust and militarization, warning that such trends undermine both regional stability and the authority of multilateral institutions, including the UN itself.
He urged member states to invest more in preventive diplomacy and the peaceful settlement of disputes as reaffirmed by the Council in Resolution 2788.
Ahmad said Pakistan hoped the OSCE would continue reinforcing models of cooperative security and that the Security Council would back partnerships that strengthen international law and the credibility of multilateral frameworks.
The path forward, he added, required “choosing cooperation over confrontation, dialogue over division, and inclusive security over bloc-based divides.”
