ISPR has termed comments, made over social media by hard-core loyalist of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, as “unacceptable and highly condemnable”, asserting the whole nation stood with the institution.
By Ahmer Kureishi
ISLAMABAD: While Pakistani social media users by and large poured out their love for the Pakistan army personnel martyred in a helicopter crash earlier this week and commiserated with their families, a number of uncouth users resorted to insensitive comments, causing widespread outrage.
On Friday, the military said those disrespectful comments caused a lot of hurt among the martyrs’ families as well as among the rank and file of the armed forces. It also implied it sees the irreverent commentary as a campaign.
“The regretful social media campaign after unfortunate helicopter crash on 1 August has caused deep anguish and distress among Shuhada families and rank & file of the Armed Forces”, a press note issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Friday evening said.
“While the whole nation stood with the institution in this difficult time certain insensitive quarters resorted to hurtful & derogatory comments on social media which is unacceptable and highly condemnable.”
ISPR chief Maj-Gen Babar Iftikhar also took time out to reiterate this point of view in remarks over a private news channel in the evening.
The offensive comments started to appear when the reports of the helicopter going missing first broke, and seemed to come from the followers of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Related: Military chopper missing after take-off from Quetta
Their grudge, stated in many instances, was the military refusal to save Khan from the parliamentary vote of no confidence that led to his ouster from power this April. Under the Constitution, the military has no role in politics and no duty to come to the rescue of a prime minister who has lost his the confidence of a majority of National Assembly.
The ISPR also shared a brief video clip showing one of the offending users owning up to his mistake, and promising not to indulge in such behaviour again. His father also appears in the video, attesting to his son’s wrongdoing and promising his son will behave in in future.
According to the video, the man has been identified by FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) as Muneeb Kayani, the Convenor of ISF (Insaf Students Federation), the student wing of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and a hard-core party loyalist.
Kayani says he took his cue in posting those offensive tweets from the Twitter and Facebook posts of Maj (R) Adil Raja, Azma Khan PTI, Sabina Khan PTI, and Imran Riaz Khan.
Related: Two army generals among 6 perish in chopper crash
Six Pakistan Army personnel including two generals had perished in a helicopter crash on August 1. They were on a flood relief mission, and the whirly bird had initially gone missing. The military later said its initial investigations indicated the craft had crashed because of bad weather.
The generals on board the ill-fated helicopter were Commander 12 Corps Lt-Gen Sarfraz Ali and DG Pakistan Coast Guard Maj-Gen Amjad.
The nation received the news of the accident with utter shock and deep grief. Tributes poured forth from political leadership and other notables as well as common Pakistanis over social media for days.
Social media users also voiced their outrages over the irreverent comments that surfaced back then. Some users pointed out that some of the offending handles belonged to Khan’s PTI.
It was also noted with great revulsion that none of the party leaders including Khan had issued a shut up call to the offenders.
The martyrs were laid to rest with full military honours. Those who attended the main event at Rawalpindi’s Army Graveyard included Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, several federal ministers, COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, prominent journalists, foreign dignitaries, senior serving and retired military and civil officials, and other notables.
Conspicuous by his absence on the occasion was President Arif Alvi, and it was said he had been politely told off in view of the hurt the comments from his party cohorts had caused the families of the martyrs.
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