By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: A forensic report from a top laboratory in Punjab has confirmed the presence of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s chief minister and several top leaders of opposition Tahreek-e-Insaf party at the scene of violent protests in Peshawar on May 9, 2023, escalating a long-simmering political showdown over accusations of orchestrated arson and vandalism against state property.
The Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory, in a detailed audio-visual analysis requested by Peshawar police, examined 16 video clips frame by frame and matched images of Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, along with party figures Kamran Bangash, Taimur Jhagra and Irfan Saleem, to individuals appearing in the footage. The findings, completed between Dec. 19 and Dec. 23 and dispatched shortly after, led police in Peshawar to weigh charges against Afridi in the attack on the Radio Pakistan building and toll plazas and the destruction of ambulances. Officials considered the report as irrefutable and admissible in court.
That day, PTI supporter, took to the streets after a brief arrest of the party’s founder, Imran Khan, on corruption charges. Those protest quickly turned chaotic, with supporters vandalising military installations, state-owned buildings and the residence of Lahore’s corps commander, leading to the arrests of thousands, including party leaders.
Punjab’s information and culture minister, Azma Bokhari, said the forensic findings are proof of a “deliberate” and “well-planned conspiracy” on May 9 2023. “The planning was carried out by the same elements involved in the violence, and their statements — including those of Murad Saeed — are on record,” Bokhari said in a statement on Sunday. The evidence from the May 9 events had been presented publicly before, but that “PTI leadership, true to its past conduct, chose to deny facts and fabricate false narratives.” “Lying is not merely a habit of PTI; it has become a chronic disease from which they appear unwilling and unable to recover.”
The forensic review, conducted at the direction of an anti-terrorism court hearing the Radio Pakistan attack case, was based on videos submitted via USB by Peshawar’s Sharqi police station. Experts went through them one frame at a time. While most showed no signs of tampering, the laboratory detected insertions of people and text in some clips, and evidence of splicing in two videos featuring Afridi and Saleem. Profile photographs of the four men were compared to figures in the footage, confirming matches in each instance. The analysis was confined to visual content, with no examination of audio.
Investigators in Peshawar, who received the report three days ago and submitted it to the court, have begun internal consultations on nominating Afridi as an accused. Members of the investigation team said the officer in charge and the senior superintendent for investigations had briefed the province’s inspector general, and that legal advice was being sought from the police department’s legal branch. A detailed review of the findings is underway, the investigators said, adding that the police are now required to file a supplementary challan, or charge sheet, in the case.
Provincial minister Bokhari said the individuals who stormed the Lahore corps commander’s residence and carried out acts of vandalism were not ordinary protesters but “official office bearers and ticket holders of PTI.” Despite this, she said, a “persistent false narrative was promoted, branding the events as a so-called ‘false flag operation,’” even as Khan had publicly stated that he would apologise if incontrovertible evidence emerged. “Yet, despite evidence surfacing repeatedly, there has been no remorse or acceptance,” Bokhari added.
She called the Punjab laboratory one of the most trusted in Asia, and said the report “clearly documents the torching of Radio Pakistan, attacks on multiple toll plazas, and the burning of ambulances — all of which constitute grave criminal acts.” All of it stands up in court, Bokhari said, and those behind the riots, destruction and harm to public assets will answer for it. “The politics of abusing, intimidating, and blackmailing the state through lies will no longer be tolerated… The law will take its own course.”
The May 9 unrest marked a flashpoint in Pakistan’s turbulent politics, with PTI supporters clashing with security forces in cities across the country. The party has long maintained that the violence was provoked or staged. Analysts, however, say the forensic review deepens the legal woes for PTI, which has seen its influence wane since Khan’s ouster from power in 2022 through a no-confidence vote. Khan himself remains imprisoned, facing more than 200 cases from his cell that his allies insist are politically motivated.
PTI officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the forensic report or Bokhari’s statement.
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