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.

PESHAWAR: Deadly sectarian clashes have continued in Pakistan's northwestern Kurram district in spite of a tentative ceasefire struck late last week, local officials said, with the death toll now over 130 as authorities try to broker a solution.
Kurram, near the border with Afghanistan, has been a flashpoint for sectarian tensions for decades. They spilled over into a fresh wave of attacks last month when clashes between Sunnis and Shias left dozens dead.
District administration official Wajid Hussain said 133 people had been killed in the attacks in the last week and a half.
"The district administration and other relevant authorities have initiated efforts to stop fighting between the two communities but there is no breakthrough yet," he said.
A Pakistani government team mediated a seven-day ceasefire deal between the rival groups last Sunday. Armed Shia and Sunni Muslims have engaged in tribal and sectarian rivalry for decades over land and other local disputes in Kurram.
Provincial authorities put the death toll at 97, with 43 people killed in the initial attack when gunmen opened fire on mostly Shia drivers and the rest killed in retaliatory clashes.
Chief Minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Ali Amin Khan Gandapur visited the area on Saturday for a large gathering of tribal elders and leaders.
"Anyone who takes up arms will be treated as a terrorist, and their fate will be that of a terrorist," said Gandapur according to a statement from his office late on Saturday, adding that security forces would remain in the area.
Residents and officials said the main highway connecting Kurram's main city of Parachinar to the provincial capital Peshawar was blocked, which had created challenges transferring wounded people to hospitals.
"Our medical team is working around the clock to perform surgeries due to the challenges in referring patients to larger hospitals in Peshawar and elsewhere," said Dr Syed Mir Hassan, from Parachinar's district hospital.
He added that they were currently treating around 100 wounded patients and had received 50 bodies during the violence.