ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khwaja Asif has defended the government’s decision to try civilians, arrested after May 9 vandalization by PTI workers, in military courts, calling their alleged attacks on military installations during the violent protests an “act of rebellion against the state”.
The Minister said that the arrests of thousands of civilians over protests sparked by the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan this month were justified and alleged that army installations were intentionally targeted.
“These people attacked their [the military’s] offices. They attacked their houses. They attacked their installations, such as air bases,” Asif said in an interview on Wednesday. “They planned it. It was not spontaneous. You must understand the gravity of the offence, the gravity of events which took place.”
Thousands of PTI supporters, angry over the arrest of Imran Khan, took to the streets on May 9 and May 10. A large part of that anger was directed towards the powerful military, which the protesters accuse of orchestrating their leader’s arrest.
Several military buildings and installations were attacked, some set on fire, as clashes with the security forces led to at least 10 deaths.
While PTI says more than 10,000 people have been arrested and jailed as part of an unprecedented crackdown, the government says it has arrested more than 4,000 people involved in rioting and vandalism by using surveillance technology to track them.
The government had said it would try the protesters under the Army Act, triggering outrage among rights groups. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif later insisted that only those who attacked army infrastructure would be tried under the military law.
Read more: Jinnah House attack: Ex-PTI MPA among 16 handed over to army for trial
