Former prime minister Imran Khan has asked his supporters to wait for the street agitation call after unidentified people attacked the party’s information secretary Raoof Hassan with a blade on Tuesday.
“We must now be ready to practically struggle against this fascist mafia. I instruct all of you— my central party leadership, central, provincial and local party organisation, members, workers, supporters and the common man to wait for my street agitation call,” he was quoted as saying in a statement shared by the PTI on social media platform X on Wednesday.
His reaction comes a day after Hassan was attacked by unidentified people in Islamabad when he was going out of a news channel’s office.
The party has demanded a judicial commission investigate the attack, with the victim describing it as an “assassination attempt”. While quoting party founder Imran Khan’s message, he said that the party would begin countrywide protests if such kinds of attacks were made against their party leaders.
“The impact of such demonstrations will be on the corrupt government,” the PTI leader said and rejected the first information report (FIR) registered by Islamabad police for the attack.
Khan in his message claimed that PTI’s political persecution was carried on with complete impunity over the past two years in Pakistan.
He alleged that the party was subjected to the prohibited war tool of collective punishment.
“For the sake of Pakistan, we have been very patient so far. But ENOUGH IS ENOUGH NOW!! The heinous attack on Rauf Hassan is very instigating and further demonstrates that the powerful are unwilling to accept dissent, preferring to resort to cowardly tactics rather than addressing the underlying problems.”
He reiterated that economic stability cannot be achieved without having political stability.