LAHORE: Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Anwar on Thursday again denied that Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Police and Punjab Police clashed outside Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence in Lahore as claimed by the federal gov-ernment a day earlier.
On Wednesday, Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb alleged that the GB police personnel were being pitted against the Punjab police as the latter attempted to arrest PTI chief Imran Khan from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore.
The then GB IGP, Muhammad Saeed, was subsequently transferred from his post despite Punjab IGP having already deemed claim of confrontation between police personnel from the two provinces as “baseless”.
The Punjab IGP had told media that no clash or confrontation occurred with GB police anywhere in Zaman Park, adding that GB policemen had not pointed their guns at Lahore police personnel.
“When Lahore police was engaged for the purpose, the GB police had gone (back),” he had said. Punjab IGP Anwar yesterday again dispelled that allegation while speaking to media, stating: “Let me clarify that those who wear the uni-form of the state do not fight one another.”
“The state is one unit, and all the institutions who don the uniform protect every inch of the state and will continue to do so. I want to be very clear that no police [force] can or ever has gone against the police of [another province],” Anwar said.
“The state is not weak. Pakistan’s two forces have not clashed with each other. This nation is one and the state is standing strong. All uniformed forces are united and one.”
However, he said that the security detail assigned to a chief minister or a minister was duty-bound to protect them.
Meanwhile, GB Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid also denied the allegations put forward by Aurangzeb in her address. “I am surrounded by respon-sible officers who understand what court orders are and they know what is the colour of the rangers uniform,” he said.
“The security that went there were my own officers who were there to protect me.” he said. –Agencies
