‘Fabricated and Malicious’: Pakistan Army Blasts Imran Khan for Accusing ISI Officer of Murder Plot

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s murder allegations against a top ISI officer have not gone down well with the Pakistan Army which said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief’s “fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable”.

Imran Khan has alleged that top ISI officer Major-General Faisal Naseer, who allegedly tried to kill him twice, was also involved in the brutal murder of senior journalist Arshad Sharif. Khan’s remarks came while he was addressing a rally in Lahore from his bullet-bomb-proof vehicle.

“Inter-Services Intelligence’s Major-General Faisal Naseer tried to kill me twice. He is also involved in the killing of (TV anchor) Arshad Sharif. He also stripped my party Senator Azam Swati naked and inflicted severe torture on him,” Khan said.

Arshad Sharif, who was critical of the Army, was killed in Kenya last October as he fled the country citing threats to his life from the security agencies.

Imran Khan, 71, had earlier accused Gen Naseer, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah of an assassination attempt on his life in November last year in Punjab province’s Wazirabad wherein he took three bullets to his leg.

Taking strong objection to Khan’s latest tirade, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the military, said: “This has been a consistent pattern for the last one year wherein military and intelligence agencies officials are targeted with insinuations and sensational propaganda for the furtherance of political objectives.”

“We ask the political leader concerned to make a recourse to legal avenues and stop making false allegations. The institution reserves the right to take legal course of action against patently false and malafide statements and propaganda,” the ISPR said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also took on Imran Khan for “maligning and threatening” the army and intelligence agencies.

“Imran Niazi’s act of routinely maligning and threatening the Pakistan Army and Intelligence Agency for the sake of petty political gains is highly condemnable. His levelling of allegations without any proof against Gen Faisal Naseer and officers of our Intelligence Agency cannot be allowed and will not be tolerated,” he tweeted on Sunday.

With PTI inputs

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