Three people I know were killed in the PTI protest in Islamabad: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

In an interesting development, former Prime Minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member Shahid Khaqan Abbasi while appearing on a Dawn News program, revealed, “I personally know about three people who were killed by bullet injuries in PTI protests, two of whom are from my constituency.”

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) official page on X (formerly Twitter) shared the interview on November 28 as the party claims that security forces opened fire on protestors leading to multiple fatalities – a claim the government wholly denies.

Abbasi’s revelation however came as a surprise as he criticised the government for the “extreme use of force” on the protestors warning that “one day they would all have to pay for this violence.”

Journalist Arifa Noor asked Abbasi about the general perception being created by the state highlights the deaths of only security officials in the protests but not any civilians.

Abbasi replied: “Tell the mother or father of that innocent civilian who lost his life in the protest that your son is alive. Unjust death is martyrdom. I personally know about three people who were killed by bullet injuries in PTI protests, two of whom are from my constituency. Their funeral prayers were offered yesterday.”

The journalist remained stunned after Abbasi’s revelation and asked whether the families received the dead bodies, Abbasi replied: “Yes, they received the bodies as their funerals were offered. Look, it’s really strange that the government had to fire bullets at night when the area was in complete darkness. Were they attacked? They cannot justify open firing at the protestors in the federal capital, no less.”

“I could even understand security forces firing at some violent protestors in the daytime. Even that is unjust and unacceptable. For the sake of an argument, I could understand that in the daytime, maybe a violent protestor attacked a security official and they killed that protestor. But they fired the bullets in complete darkness, what was the motive behind this policy? They had shut down electricity in the area deliberately,” remarked Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

“After killing the people, the government is doubling down and beating its chest that no one apart from the security officials has been killed. One day, they will have to accept what they’ve done,” said the former PML-N leader.

It is worth mentioning that during the PTI’s tenure, corruption cases were lodged against then PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the Pakistan-Qatar LNG deal of 2015. 

In 2024, NAB withdrew the cases against Abbasi and Miftah Ismail. Abbasi spent 138 days in jail before the first formal charge was brought against him. Miftah Ismail was in jail for 118 days when the first interim charge sheet was filed against all the accused.