By: Shajil Kumar
Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, who is in jail, has warned that the situation in Balochistan province and on borders with India and Afghanistan was worsening.
In a column for The Daily Telegraph newspaper, the 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician wrote, “On Pakistan’s borders, India has already admitted to undertaking assassinations inside of Pakistan and the international border with Afghanistan remains volatile.”
Khan, currently lodged in the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, alleged that Pakistan was seeing an upsurge in terrorism and a growing alienation in Balochistan. He lamented that Pakistan was treading the same path as in 1971, when it lost its eastern region, now Bangladesh.
He was imprisoned on August 5, 2023, under numerous charges and was barred from contesting the elections and his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was prohibited from using the party symbol during the general election.
Khan hailed the “democratic revenge” of the February 8 general election, during which people came out and “voted overwhelmingly” for candidates supported by his party.
“Unfortunately, instead of accepting the people’s mandate, the military establishment went into a fit of rage, and electoral results were manipulated to bring into power the losers,” Khan wrote.
Khan lamented the sorry state of affairs in Pakistan where political leaders like him languish in jail and said all that was left for the powerful military leadership was to “murder” him.
He reiterated his previous assertion that if anything happens to him or his wife Bushra Bibi, General Asim Munir – the Chief of Army Staff, will be responsible.
India’s denial
Reacting to Khan’s allegations, the Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar dismissed the accusation and remarked that Pakistan has an abundance of terrorists within its borders.
Jaishankar said there have been reports of some individuals with a background in terrorism dying in unusual circumstances in Pakistan. He said this is something Pakistan authorities should investigate.
Earlier in April, The Guardian published a report in which Pakistani and Indian intelligence operatives claimed that the Indian Government had assassinated individuals on Pakistani soil.
India denied that report and the foreign ministry said it was “false and malicious propaganda” against the country.
Canada and the US have also accused India of involvement in the murder of some Sikh activists settled abroad.
[TheChamp-Sharing]
