November 27, 2024
By Munizae Jahangir
ISLAMABAD
When the night air of Islamabad was thick with tear gas, relatives of those dead and injured in the security operation at D-chowk gathered at Islamabad’s Polyclinic Institute, waiting for their loved ones to be treated.
Firasat Hussain a resident of Kotli Sattian looked solemn and shocked as the bullet-ridden body of his young 20-year-old son, Anees Shahzad Satti lay in the hospital. Firasat Hussain’s children as well as the young Anees Shahzad had come to attend the PTI protest.
“Satti was shot with a bullet near Kulsoom Hospital when he was going towards the D-Chowk,” said Safdar Zaman Satti, a relative who had come to collect the body. Satti claimed that he was fired upon from on top of the buildings surrounding the Blue Area close to Kulsoom hospital.“Regardless of whether he is a PTI supporter or not, the government had no justification to target unarmed civilians on the roads,” he said.
The spokesperson of the Polyclinic Hospital, Dr Jabbar Bhutta was unwilling to speak to the press and refused to answer our phone calls.
Health beat reporters at the hospital reported that 24 people were injured. One of them was a young man named Salman Humayun, who was brought in with a bullet in his left leg. His jeans were torn in the middle in order to tend to the wound. He squealed in pain and said that he did not want to be filmed.
“I live in Canada, but I am visiting Pakistan. I am not a die-hard supporter of PTI, but I came to experience a PTI jalsa. And then suddenly the lights were shut off and bullets started to fly. I never expected that I would face bullets for simply attending a protest,” he complained.
Despite the clear evidence, the Federal Government Polyclinic administration has denied that any dead bodies or injured people were brought to the hospital due to gunshot wounds. “Such unverified news pertaining to this hospital circulating on media may be considered as fake,” the clarification added. But the federal government has not issued any statement regarding the number of protesters injured and deaths during its operation to clear the federal capital of PTI supporters.
However, PTI accounts on social media posted a list of injured and dead brought to the Polyclinic after the security operation. According to the list, 2 dead bodies and 26 others with bullet injuries were brought to the Polyclinic. PTI has claimed that 8 of its supporters lost their lives and gave names of seven of those deceased -Anees Shahzad Satti, Malik Mubeen Aurangzeb, Abdul Qadir, Malik Safdar Ali, Ahmed Wali, Muhammad Ilyas, and Abdul Rashid. The international media reported that during the PTI protest, three rangers and one police official were killed. The government claims that the police constable killed, sustained injuries to his head, after he was pelted with stones by the PTI protestors. The details of who killed the three Ranger personnel remain unclear.
Heavy tear gas shelling and gunshots heard near D-Chowk, Islamabad today as @PTIofficial protesters stage a sit-in to call for #ImranKhan's release, reports @MunizaeJahangir #DChowkProtest @ImranKhanPTI @CMShehbaz pic.twitter.com/QL5ZH5hlUk
— Voicepk.net (@voicepkdotnet) November 26, 2024
Today Firasat Hussain performed the last rites of his 20-year-old son Anees Shahzad, who was studying to be an engineer. While the government has busied itself with mocking the PTI and denying that any loss of life occurred with their bullet, the leadership of PTI is now safely back in their stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, after having abandoned its workers to face bullets and tear gas in the capital.