A day after he opened a new front in his war with the military establishment, former prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday delivered another fiery speech targeting the intelligence chief and called two servicemen under him — who his party has accused of inflicting custodial torture on Senator Azam Swati — “savages”.
Khan, who on the first day of the march on Friday came out guns blazing against Lt. Gen. Nadeem Anjum and accused him of holding a press conference “more political than Sheikh Rasheed”, again put the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency on his radar.
“[Yours was an] apolitical press conference, you say? You don’t target only Imran Khan in an apolitical press conference,” he thundered, standing atop his container. On Saturday, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) resumed its protest march to Islamabad to demand snap elections at noon from Shahdara Town on the outskirts of Lahore.
Thousands of people gathered in the border town of the provincial metropolis, from where a convoy began the 380-kilometre journey to the capital, expected to take around a week with rallies planned along the route.
Speaking to a charged crowd, Khan recalled Swati blamed two ISI officials for the torture. “The names he took […] these two savages — since the day they were brought to Islamabad, [they] oppressed the people and media, threatened them, picked up social media activists.
“First they picked up Shahbaz Gill, stripped him and tortured him and then [repeated the same with anchorperson] Jameel Farooqui.”
He also called on Umar Ata Bandial, the chief justice, to protect people’s fundamental rights and take action against the alleged custodial torture of PTI leaders, particularly Senator Swati.
Chief justice sahib, it is your job to protect fundamental rights. The nation is looking towards you. Action is taken against custodial torture across the world …Who will protect our fundamental rights if not you chief justice sahib?” he said.
Continuing with his diatribe, Khan, who made it apparent who he was addressing and yet without naming anyone, said: “Don’t treat us like animals, that you first call them [current government leaders] robbers and then impose them on us, and tell us sheep that now move in this direction.”
“You first tell us the Nawaz Sharif was a robber and now he is clean. Previously, Zardari was ‘Mr 10 percent’ in the world and but now since ‘we have decided, you also accept him’.”
He exclaimed again “we are not sheep” and that “you are standing with them today”. About what will happen once we reach Islamabad, you have to wait as to what I decide after reaching the capital,” he told the cable TV station.