At the outset let it be said loud and clear that even the death of one protester in a rally or demonstration where protesters are standing up for what they see as a denial of their rights by the government and state is one death too many.
Since the PTI’s nationwide protest called for November 24 ended abruptly a few days later, there has been a veritable war of words between the party and its supporters on one side, and the government and supporters of its constituent parties on the other. Much of this war of words – and images, clips and tweets, and so on – has been played out on social media. And if one were to use the amount of these as a measure of success of the side’s narrative then PTI would win the ‘war’ hands down.
However, the issue is far more serious and requires urgent attention from the government as well, which so far has dismissed the matter outright saying that there have been no deaths. As for the PTI, it has, by and large, taken the other extreme, claiming that a “massacre” took place at the hands of security forces and that “hundreds” of its supporters were killed. The government and its ministers have scoffed at this idea, saying that security forces (meaning military soldiers) never came face-to-face with the protesters and had been deployed only to protect and safeguard government institutions and buildings inside the Red Zone and the Diplomatic Enclave.
The PTI has been proclaiming the claim of “hundreds” dying in a “massacre” every day on social media. However, even within the party, some in its senior leadership have stopped using the “hundreds” claim. In fact, the party’s own Twitter/X handle recently tweeted, along with names and pictures, that 12 of its supporters had been killed in the firing which led to the abrupt end of the protest in Islamabad. The figure of 12 is a far cry from the claim of “hundreds”, which was used by Imran Khan’s sister in an interview with a foreign TV channel.
The claim of “hundreds” killed in a “massacre” also employs another claim – which has yet to be verified independently – that military snipers placed on nearby buildings shot at the protesters. To ‘prove’ their claim, the PTI and its supporters showed what it said was a picture of men on top of a building. However, the picture shows only them from the shoulders upwards and it is impossible to tell anything else – and it’s likely that they were posted there, as in the case with all law-enforcement personnel deployment, for security purposes.
The government will have to take the lead since the claim, no matter how fantastical it may seem, needs to be investigated
The best way to figure out an accurate figure would have to come from independent sources in the media. But before that, we can even look at what some politicians said. For instance, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said in a TV show that he personally knew that three people in his constituency area in Murree had been killed. A BBC reporter said that she had spoken to relatives and families of some of the people who had been killed.
Both the government as well as the PTI need to come back from their respective extreme positions. The government will have to take the lead since the claim, no matter how fantastical it may seem, needs to be investigated. A good starting point for that can be the figure of 12 deaths which the PTI itself had put forward, and which its chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has also mentioned.
The task of investigating the number of those who actually died, and assigning blame and responsibility for the tragic deaths, should be ideally done by a judicial commission, headed by a serving Supreme Court judge. Of course, any individual who is nominated for this post and takes it up will have to deal with the PTI’s formidable social media presence, which is bound to monitor the commission and its working very minutely.