By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A man was shot dead by security forces in Rawalpindi on Tuesday after he allegedly opened fire on a police patrol on the city’s Mall Road, wounding one officer, in an incident that has reignited a bitter row between the government and Pakistan’s largest opposition party.
Police said the gunman, named as Muhammad Hussain, son of Muhammad Baz, fired a pistol at a security patrol at around 11:15am. The patrol returned fire, killing him at the scene. A spokesperson for Rawalpindi police said officers believed Hussain was “affiliated with a particular political party” and that evidence of his affiliations had since been recovered from his mobile phone and belongings, though the force did not immediately elaborate on what that evidence showed.
“The attacker was immediately killed in retaliatory fire,” the spokesperson said, adding that law enforcement agencies “remain fully prepared and committed to eliminating all forms of terrorism and incitement to unrest.” Police said a full investigation into the shooting was under way.
State broadcaster PTV News, citing security sources, reported that Hussain was a resident of Khyber district and had been an active member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party founded by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. The broadcaster said a PTI flag, along with bullets and weapons, had been recovered from him. PTV later aired footage of a red and green cloth, a firearm and ammunition it said had been seized from the scene.
Minister accuses PTI of “violent politics”
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar used a televised statement following the shooting to launch a fierce attack on PTI, describing the party’s record as one of “the politics of violence” and insisting there had been no justification for the attack on security personnel.
Confirming the location as Mall Road, Tarar said there was “no reason for opening fire on security personnel” and accused PTI members of routinely “coming equipped with weapons” to political gatherings.
He pointed to the party’s announcement of a long march on Islamabad, planned for 27 September, claiming it was “on record” that PTI supporters “always come armed at all their protests, open fire on security personnel and martyr them.”
“They do not believe in a peaceful protest, and today, the entire nation has witnessed their nefarious aims and objectives,” Tarar said, adding that the officer had been targeted “in public in broad daylight.”
“This is their ideology; they believe in violence and such incidents. The PTI has always done politics of violence, and not a single one of their protests has been peaceful,” he said.
The minister said the flag and other documents recovered from the scene made clear that PTI’s aim was to “spread anarchy in the country and ruin the law and order.”
Tarar went further, suggesting the timing of the planned long march was no coincidence, coming as it does after Pakistan signed a joint defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkey that drew international praise. “Whenever Pakistan makes progress and garners respect, this is not digested by the PTI,” he said, recalling previous instances in which the party had announced protests to coincide with visits by foreign heads of state.
He said the pattern behind every PTI protest was consistent: supporters arrived “equipped with weapons,” opened fire, “pile up bodies,” and left law and order in the country damaged.
PTI denies any connection to the attack
PTI moved swiftly to distance itself from the shooting, rejecting any suggestion of involvement and accusing the government of attempting to tie the party to terrorism. Amir Mughal, PTI’s regional president for Islamabad, said the party believed in a “peaceful and unarmed political struggle” and rejected outright any attempt to associate it with violence. He called for the facts of the incident to be made public and urged the authorities not to use the shooting to malign the party.
Mughal added that attempts to portray PTI as a terrorist or anti-state organisation had already been rejected by ordinary Pakistanis, pointing to the party’s strong showing at the polls on 8 February 2024 as evidence of continued public support.
The shooting comes amid heightened tension between the government and PTI ahead of the party’s planned long march next month. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, a PTI figure, has said the purpose of the march is not to secure Khan’s release from prison but to gain access to the party founder, who has been in custody since August 2023.
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