PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said Monday that there would be a reaction whenever people are detained by unidentified personnel in plain clothes, as tensions rise ahead of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s planned Sept. 27 protest.
Addressing the provincial assembly, Afridi said the party would hold what he described as a legal, constitutional and peaceful protest on Sept. 27.
“If anyone in plain clothes picks someone up, there will be a reaction,” Afridi said, without specifying who he was referring to.
Afridi alleged that the government was not respecting court orders and the law and questioned where the country was heading. He also referred to an alleged attack on Shakur Khan and claimed that PTI banners had been burned and protest camps dismantled.
He called for dialogue to resolve the situation and challenged the authorities to impose governor’s rule if they believed it was necessary.
Earlier, during a news conference in Peshawar, Afridi rejected allegations of “politics of chaos” and said the party had exhausted its constitutional and political options before announcing the long march.
PTI has announced a march on Islamabad for Sept. 27 and says it is seeking the release of its founding chairman, former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The party is currently finalizing its strategy for the planned protest.
The planned demonstration comes amid heightened political tensions and arrests of PTI-linked figures ahead of the protest. Imran Khan’s sisters Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi have been detained in Lahore under the Maintenance of Public Order law, according to reports.