The intelligence agencies had intercepted a telephonic conversation about a staged police attack on one of the PTI leaders, killing its occupants, and then blaming law enforcement agencies for the act, the interior minister has claimed.

“The second plan revealed in the intercepted audio involved staging incidents of firing and disgracing women with the intention of portraying it as the work of intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said at a hurriedly called press conference late Saturday night.

They “planned” to highlight it as a human rights issue at the international level, he claimed.

He described the alleged claims as a matter of “huge importance” and thought it was necessary to apprise the nation as the “orchestrated event” was planned for Saturday night. But timely action from the intelligence agencies foiled the nefarious design, he said and claimed it resulted in the “exposure of the plot” even before its execution.

The intended purpose of the orchestrated event was to generate controversy surrounding the legal actions taken after May 9 riots and to present such staged plays as grave human rights violations and state oppression through international media, Sanaullah alleged.

The interior minister alleged that such people hurt the sentiments of martyrs’ families and the nation by attacking the martyrs’ monuments, Jinnah House, and military installations.

He expressed firm resolve that the May 9 miscreants would definitely be brought to justice. Those, who attacked Jinnah House and broke into military installations, would be “tried in military courts” under the Military Act 1952, he added.

For all others involved in the May 9 riots, Sanaullah clarified that their trial would be conducted in civil courts.

The minister conveyed the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the firm resolve of the federal government that “no innocent” would be prosecuted.

Sanaullah claimed the PTI leadership employed methods without considering its impact including lobbying with external forces like Zalmay Khalilzad to achieve their objectives. But when they failed, he said that they hatched a “dreadful plan” to stage such attack and “put the blame” on law enforcers.

“The gang and its ringleader were near to meet their logical end, and they would never be allowed to achieve their objectives,” he said.