Speaking a day after he was shot during a protest march in Wazirabad, the country’s former premier compared the 1971 situation with 2022 in Pakistan. He said that in the year 1971 the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-led Awami League was not allowed to form a government despite a majority.
“What happened in East Pakistan? The largest party that won, they took action against it…’, Khan said. He also recalled the atrocities in East Pakistan. The West Pakistani establishment including the deep state at its core, was fiercely against the opinion of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Awami League President) being the supreme leader of Pakistan who won an absolute democratic majority mandate in the 1970 general elections. Pakistan Army formulated a heinous plan, conspiracy to crush the Bengali unity and to ensure that their hopes and liberation where forgotten forever. A military crackdown codenamed Operation Search light was launched on March 26, 1971 by the army and its collaborators.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, men women and children were mercilessly murdered and ravaged throughout East Pakistan. It is estimated almost as high as 10 million refugees fled across the borders into neighbouring India to seek refuge from reign of terror which lasted in East Pakistan from March 26 to December 16, 1971. Khan lashed out at the Pakistan army and political class for country’s current situation and said, “”Hindustan bhi hum se age nikal gaya…(India went past us in terms of development.”
The former PM suffered a bullet injury on Thursday in an attack, which his supporters have termed as an assassination bid. Khan warned the country’s establishment that political change is inevitable in the country, whether through peaceful means or through chaos, similar to what witnessed in the Iranian revolution of the 1970s and large-scale protests in Sri Lanka.
Speaking for the first time, since the assassination attempt on him, Khan said, “There are only two options left with this (awakened) public: a peaceful or a bloody revolution. There is no third way out. I have seen the country wake up.” “Now decide if we can bring change in a peaceful way through the ballot box or through chaos like the one witnessed in Iran and Sri Lanka,” he said after explaining the sequence of events during a televised address while still being admitted at a hospital in Lahore.
In a startling claim, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief said he knew beforehand that assassination was being planned against him. “A day before going to the rally, I knew that assassination was being planned against me either in Wazirabad or Gujrat,” Khan said.
“That day when I was in the container, I was suddenly hit by bullets in my legs and I started falling down. There were two people, if they would have synchronised then I wouldn’t have been saved,” he was said. On Thursday, PTI chief Imran Khan was attacked near his container in Punjab province during his long march in Wazirabad.
Imran sustained injuries on his leg and was shifted to a hospital for treatment. The PTI leaders said that Imran Khan’s condition is stable and he is out of danger.
