Impasse
Rashed Rahman
Anniversaries can be of different kinds, some mere rituals, others more than a mere remembrance of things past. May 9 has already passed into the category of the latter. A year ago, the happenings on May 9, 2023 have been detailed in a report by the caretaker government. It makes, to put it mildly, startling reading. What it says seems to nullify Imran Khan and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf’s (PTI’s) lately found narrative of them being victims of a ‘false flag’ operation. What it omits, or does not say, is even more mind boggling.
The report names dozens of PTI leaders who it says were responsible for instigating their party followers to attack military installations, etc., on that fateful day after the arrest of Imran Khan. It lists 300 places where such violent protests were mounted after PTI leaders took to social media following the arrest of Imran Khan to spread lies and calumnies about the conditions in which Imran Khan was being held (i.e. torture in custody) and that he was likely to be killed. Naturally this had the intended effect of angering the PTI followers who went berserk in their attacks on various military sites. Since the violent reaction took hardly minutes to ensue, the unanswered question remains, were the targets pre-chosen? If so, there was obviously a preconceived plan or strategy. Let us examine the details in the report of what transpired in the major cities of the country that day.
Protests in Lahore began on May 9, 2023 around 1500 hours when PTI supporters started gathering at Liberty Chowk. At around 1600 hours, Dr Yasmin Rashid reached Liberty Chowk and the protestors started moving towards the Corps Commander’s residence (Jinnah House) in Cantt. As an aside, let me add that when I went home that night in Cantt over the Sherpao Bridge, I was surprised to find that the military check post after the bridge showed signs as though a hurricane had hit it. The soldiers/guards’ cabin at the start lay shattered, all the lights were out, the lane markers (red and white) all lay flattened like a storm-hit wheat field. Not a single soldier was present. My surmise then was that the military had opted not to accost the protestors as this could have led to bloodshed (the soldiers deployed at such check posts are armed). This could be likened to a strategic retreat, but whether that qualifies as a ‘false flag’ operation begs the question: is it not a fact that the protestors were so charged up that they demolished this check post (as I witnessed)? The report says by 1800 hours the protestors entered Jinnah House, ransacked it and set it on fire. Urban legend has it that the Corps Commander and his family fled by breaking a back boundary wall into a neighbouring house and escaping in the neighbours’ car. No attempt seems to have been made by the military’s security detail to prevent all this, which normally does not allow even parking anywhere near the Corps Commander’s house, let alone entering and destroying it. Not content with this ‘victory’, the protestors ransacked the nearby Military Engineering Services (MES) office and CSD. By 2200 hours, the mob had reached Main Boulevard, Gulberg, where it set alight Askari Tower and Askari Bank. Another group of protestors attacked the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Secretariat at 180-H, Model Town. There were continual clashes between the protestors and the law enforcing agencies (LEAs) (basically the police) across the city. LEA estimates speak of a total of around 2,000 protestors.
In Rawalpindi, protestors gathered at Liaquat Bagh by 1700 hours. For the next hour, a number of audio clips of PTI leaders emerged on social media urging the protestors to move towards General Headquarters (GHQ). The crowd now reached GHQ, turned violent, breaking a statue outside GHQ and the glass door of the reception area. Unthinkable that the military high command’s GHQ could so easily be approached and attacked, except if the military itself ‘retreated’ and left it to the LEAs to thwart any further damage, which they eventually managed by repelling the attackers. Again, ‘false flag’ or restraint? Whatever the case, it did not deter the protestors from ransacking the military history museum and the Army Signals Mess. Several vehicles were also set ablaze. The Hamza Camp and the Army Welfare Trust Plaza were attacked and the latter’s entrance was set on fire, all this while clashes between the protestors and the LEAs continued for several hours.
Gujranwala Cantt was besieged by about 100 protestors around 1940 hours but were pushed back by the LEAs. However, they continued to attack and eventually succeeded in destroying the Rahwali Gate and the main reception area. In Mianwali around 1700 hours, a crowd of about 1,000 ‘insurgents’ attacked the M M Alam Airbase. They damaged the boundary wall, broke the main entrance gate and set ablaze a jet model. Repelled by the LEAs, the same mob then attacked and damaged the Police Khidmet Centre, judicial complex and the National Bank, Punjab Bank and the General Post Office. A number of shops were looted and vehicles set ablaze. The next day, a smaller contingent blocked the Mianwali-Bannu Road, attacked several vehicles and then damaged Police Station (PS) Kamar Mashani. In Islamabad around 1500 hours, a crowd of PTI workers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of around 1,000 attacked the SP Office Industrial Area and set it alight. They then attacked the Ramna PS. The mob damaged several vehicles. In Multan at around 1800 hours, PTI workers gathered at CMH Chowk, where their strength had grown to about a thousand in the next hour. The mob attacked and damaged the Army Recruiting Centre, Army check post and neighbouring buildings, including another National Bank branch.
Does this outline of the May 9, 2023 PTI attacks smack of a ‘false flag’ operation? More likely, it suggests that the PTI felt emboldened by getting away with its 2014 attacks on Parliament and PTV Islamabad, having suffered no adverse consequences. However, what PTI forgot was that at that point it was the ‘darling’ of the military establishment, which was preparing its entry into power four years later. In 2023, that support had reversed into rejection and animosity. Urban legend again has it that the ‘insurgency’ was pre-planned and hoped for a mutiny within the military in favour of PTI. The authors of this foolish, quixotic adventure are reportedly some pro-PTI retired military officers. They would have served their party better by keeping their ‘brilliant’ counsel to themselves.
Given the above facts as adumbrated in the report, no surprise at the DG ISPR’s rejection in a press conference the other day of any suggestion of talks with PTI unless Imran Khan and the party offer an unconditional apology for their unprecedented attacks on military installations and, if urban legend is to be believed, even contemplating a breakdown of the military’s internal unity and discipline, leading to a mutiny against COAS General Asim Munir. Since Imran Khan has responded by ruling out any apology, instead demanding an apology, we are in a classic impasse, with no way out in sight.
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