Dead but not counted: Hidden victims of Pakistan’s latest political clash | Imran Khan

Islamabad, Pakistan – Anees Shehzad’s loss of life certificates says he died from a pelvic harm and gunshot wound.

He was killed whereas protesting alongside 1000’s of supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan within the capital, Islamabad, on November 26, following clashes with safety forces. Khan’s social gathering, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) insists that he was amongst a dozen civilians killed in police firing that day.

Nevertheless, based on the federal government, no protester was killed, not even Shehzad, 20.

Per week after PTI members laid siege to Islamabad and had been subsequently dispersed in a late-night operation by legislation enforcement companies, the federal government and the PTI are locked in a tense standoff over conflicting accounts of the variety of casualties throughout these clashes.

Whereas some PTI leaders initially mentioned tons of of supporters had been killed, social gathering chairman Gohar Ali Khan later mentioned the variety of useless protesters stood at 12.

Attaullah Tarar, the federal info minister, mocked that discrepancy in a message on social media platform X on Tuesday. “These our bodies will solely be discovered on TikTok, Fb and WhatsApp. They’re enjoying politics of jokes and lies with the nation,” Tarar wrote in his message in Urdu.

Earlier, on November 28, throughout a press interplay with overseas media, Tarar maintained that there have been no deaths through the protests.

He cited statements from Islamabad’s two largest public hospitals — PIMS and Poly Clinic — stating they’d obtained no our bodies. “The well being division has issued two separate statements confirming this,” he mentioned in response to a query from Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera spoke to the households of 4 PTI supporters, together with Shehzad, killed within the clashes with safety forces, and likewise reached out to Tarar, Inside Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Rana Sanaullah, the political adviser to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to hunt their feedback on the claims and counterclaims. Nevertheless, nobody within the authority responded.

The PTI has now launched the names of the 12 supporters it says had been killed between November 24 and 26, with at the least 10 reportedly struggling bullet wounds. Amongst them was Shehzad, from Kotli Sattian, a small city in Punjab province.

‘Nonetheless in shock’

Shehzad’s cousin, Nafees Satti, described the younger man as a faithful PTI supporter who insisted on becoming a member of the rally. “All of us tried to cease him, however he was adamant as a result of Imran Khan, his political idol, had known as for it,” Satti instructed Al Jazeera.

The demonstrators, led by Bushra Bibi, Khan’s spouse, had been demanding a reversal of February’s election outcomes, the discharge of political prisoners, together with Khan, and the annulment of a constitutional modification permitting authorities oversight of senior judicial appointments.

On the afternoon of November 26, tons of of PTI supporters managed to succeed in the D-Chowk, the protest’s point of interest close to Islamabad’s authorities buildings, the place they set hearth to police kiosks, chanted slogans in favour of Khan and waved social gathering flags. Shehzad was one in every of them.

The protesters quickly encountered paramilitary forces utilizing tear gasoline and rubber bullets. In addition they allegedly fired dwell rounds, although the federal government denies it.

Shehzad’s household obtained a name from Poly Clinic at about 4pm, informing them that he had been critically injured. By the point they arrived, Anees had succumbed to his accidents.

“It’s been per week, however his mom and youngest brother are nonetheless in shock,” Satti mentioned. “His brother retains fainting every now and then. Our total household is devastated.”

‘The decision abruptly dropped’

The tragedy extends past Anees’s household. One other PTI supporter, Mobeen Aurangzeb, 24, from Abbottabad, was the only real breadwinner for a household of 9 and had been dwelling in Islamabad for a number of years.

His youthful brother, Asad, mentioned Mobeen, an lively PTI member, had deliberate to attend the protest, however the household didn’t realise the extent of the dangers concerned.

“He was speaking to my sister on the telephone when the decision abruptly dropped. When she known as again, a stranger answered and instructed her that Mobeen had been shot and was being taken to hospital,” Asad recounted.

Asad and different relations struggled to succeed in Poly Clinic, the place Mobeen had been taken. Roads had been closed to cease extra waves of protesters from reaching the center of Islamabad, and people who reached the hospital mentioned authorities there have been uncooperative.

“The hospital individuals initially refused to launch the physique. After hours of pleading, they handed it over round midnight,” Asad mentioned.

The household remains to be struggling to deal with their loss. “He was the primary son after three sisters and our mother and father’ favorite. You can’t think about their state,” 22-year-old Asad mentioned, including that the accountability of supporting the household now falls on him.

Different relations who spoke to Al Jazeera additionally recounted tales of how tough it was for them to retrieve the our bodies of their family members from the hospital authorities, as they claimed they had been pressured into signing affidavits committing to not submitting first info stories (FIRs) and pursuing authorized circumstances towards safety forces.

‘They stored pressuring me’

Like Mobeen’s household, Abdul Wali from Mardan, a metropolis in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, struggled to retrieve the physique of his brother, Malik Sadar Ali, who died on the night of November 26.

Sadar Ali, an lively PTI member who steadily travelled from Dubai to attend social gathering occasions, was killed as a consequence of a “firearm harm” in his head, based on the loss of life certificates from PIMS hospital, seen by Al Jazeera.

Wali mentioned legislation enforcement officers tried to strain him to signal an announcement promising to not file an FIR about his brother’s killing.

“They stored pressuring me, however how may I promise that when my brother was murdered?” he mentioned. It was solely after persistent pleading that the household was allowed to take Ali’s physique for burial. They’d waited for greater than 12 hours at that time.

The record of PTI victims additionally contains Mohammad Ilyas, who was killed in a hit-and-run incident allegedly involving safety forces on November 25 night time.

Ilyas’s physique was taken to PIMS within the early hours of November 26, based on his loss of life certificates issued by the hospital and seen by Al Jazeera.

His elder brother, Safeer Ali, who himself spent virtually 4 weeks in jail after PTI’s earlier protest name in October, mentioned he and Ilyas had been joined by different social gathering staff as they gathered at an entry level of Islamabad to welcome a convoy of supporters arriving from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on November 25 night time.

Ali described the chaos of that night time as safety automobiles sped by a crowd of protesters. “They hit a number of individuals, together with my brother,” he mentioned.

He claimed hospital authorities delayed releasing Ilyas’s physique and tried to coerce him into absolving legislation enforcement of blame. “I refused to provide such an announcement, in order that they made me wait over 12 hours earlier than handing over the physique,” he mentioned.

However he mentioned, regardless of dropping his brother or spending time in jail himself, his help for the PTI and its chief Khan remained undiminished.

“Look, my father died in ethnic violence in Karachi in 1987. Now my brother acquired killed whereas his spouse is six months pregnant,” Ali mentioned. “However these setbacks is not going to change my help for PTI or Khan. We’re ideological supporters, and we’ll give our life for Khan.”