LAHORE , May 19, 2023: The Punjab home department on Friday issued a notification of formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the attack on Jinnah House.
According to the notification, DIG Kamran Adil heads the JIT and SSP Sohaib Ashraf Raza, Zahid Taimoor Khan and Muhammad Sarwar are its member.
The home department issued a notification on the recommendation of the Punjab IGP.
On May 9, violent protests shook the country after the arrest of Imran Khan . The riots led to the attacks on important national properties and were condemned widely. After that, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial should constitute a bench to investigate the vandalism during PTI’s protests to unearth the “real” perpetrators.
After the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had granted him relief in multiple cases following the Supreme Court’s declaration of his arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case as “illegal”, Imran talked about the spate of events in his absence during a video-link address to his followers. Soon after his arrest, the PTI staged violent protests across the country including attacks on Lahore’s Corps Commander House and the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.
The whole episode was compounded by the law-enforcement agencies’ arrests of key PTI leaders including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry.
Addressing via video link, Imran Khan claimed that the PTI did not launch the attacks on security installations. He said when two ministers tried to block protesters in KP, they (protesters) tore down their clothes. “The same strange people” were inciting public at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk,” he added.
It should be investigated, he said, as he never instructed his party workers to do so.