Fact check: Not all PTI workers arrested from Zaman Park were Pathans

ISLAMABAD: Were the PTI workers guarding Imran Khan’s residence at Zaman Park “Pathans” from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as propagated on social media. The police record of the arrested workers totally negates this propaganda.

On March 18, the Punjab police carried out an operation to clear the area from protestors. During the operation at Zaman Park Lahore, it was propagated that the majority of the PTI workers who were guarding Imran Khan’s residence were “Pathans” belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

As per the media reports, the police recovered a heavy cache of weapons including AK-47 assault rifles and a large number of bullets in the cleanup operation at Zaman Park. The video footage of the arrested workers went viral on social media after which it was propagated that majority of the workers who were guarding Imran Khan’s residence were Pathans.

The documents available with The News show the propaganda was totally baseless as the police record and official report of the interrogation reveal that two third of the arrested workers were from Punjab and only one third of those were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The documents show that Punjab police interrogated these workers to find out if any of them had any links with the banned organisations. However, the police couldn’t find any such links from the arrested workers.

The Punjab police arrested a total of 98 PTI workers during the Zaman Park operation and all the arrested workers were divided into nine different groups for interrogation. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Police interrogated all these workers who were kept in different police stations in Lahore.

Of these 98 workers who were arrested during Zaman Park operation, 32 belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, around half a dozen belonged to Balochistan whereas the remaining workers were from different cities of Punjab. The police checked their mobile data during the interrogation to determine if any of them had any links with the banned organisations. However, there was no such connection found among them.

The police report also shows that an official of the civilian intelligence agency Intelligence Bureau (IB) was also arrested during the operation. However, he was released later.

It is important to note here that during the police operation at Zaman Park, the Inspector General (IG) Punjab claimed that his force was attacked with petrol bombs and his men came under direct fire from Imran Khan’s house. The PTI leadership had termed the police operation a violation of the Lahore High Court’s decision.