Islamabad Aug 20 :- Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan accused authorities on Friday of mentally, physically and sexually torturing his chief of staff and top former aide Dr Shahbaz Gill in custody following his arrest last week on sedition charges. He also announced a rally in Islamabad on Saturday in support of his detained aide and urged people to turn out in large numbers.
“All the pictures & videos show clearly Shahbaz Gill was tortured both mentally & physically including sexual abuse – most too gruesome to relate. He was humiliated to break him down,” Khan posted on his Twitter handle, while sharing a video of Gill on a wheelchair surrounded by personnel of Islamabad police and the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary, crying and pleading for an oxygen mask.
The 42-year dual US-Pakistan citizen, a professor by profession and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) functionary, was arrested last Tuesday outside Khan’s Banigala residence in Islamabad after police dragged him out of his vehicle by smashing its windows.
On August 9, Gill had alleged on ARY private TV station that the coalition government that took office after ousting Khan in April was provoking army’s lower and middle ranks against PTI. He said families of such “rank and file” support Khan and his party, and this “is fuelling rage within the government”.
Khan vowed to find those responsible for the inhuman treatment of Gill and bring them to book. “I have full detailed information.”
Announcing that more rallies will be organised at all divisional headquarters, Khan said: “If a political worker can be subjected to such torture, it could happen to anyone in this country.” He was speaking at Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, where Gill has been hospitalised on court’s order.
Khan was barred from entering the hospital. Islamabad police said Gill was currently not in physical remand and so no one was allowed to meet him.
The PTI chairman said Islamabad police clearly mentioned that they won’t torture Gill. “My question is who tortured Gill? There is a general perception in the public and on our minds too as to who could have carried out the gruesome torture. Remember the public would react,” he said.
Khan had alleged that his aide was targeted for advising army officers against obeying unlawful commands and now they forced him to say that “I” had told him to do so.
“They have broken him (Gill) psychologically. They are forcing him to give statements against me,” Khan said. Attempts were being made to disqualify him from contesting elections and break his party, he alleged.
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