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Published 10:50 IST, March 21st 2019

PAK'S TRUTH: 'Not arrested - Protective custody, Not banned organisations - Your allies', says Bilawal Bhutto systematically tearing apart Pakistan PM Imran Khan's sham crackdown on terrorists

Pakistan Opposition leader and PPP party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has torn the Imran Khan-led Pak government asunder over its sham crackdown on 'banned organisations'

Reported by: Ankit Prasad
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Pakistan Opposition leader and PPP party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has torn the Imran Khan-led Pak government asunder over its sham crackdown on 'banned organisations' in light of the Pulwama terror attack as well as the ongoing and perennial global pressure on Pakistan to act against terrorists operating on its soil.

Speaking to media, Bhutto has cut the Pakistan government no slack and thoroughly exposed its doublespeak regarding cracking down - mostly against Hafiz Saeed's JuD and FIF and not against Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammed - saying, "We've heard this again and again that banned organisations have been acted against."

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Bilawal Bhutto, whose family has suffered at the hands of terrorists as well as the coup-happy Pakistani Army, with his mother, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, being assassinated in 2007, and his grandfather, former Pak PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, being executed after an Army coup, added that he doesn't believe the Pak government when it says it's taking action: 

"I don't buy it", Bhutto said, elaborating, "You say you've arrested, I say no, you've put them in protective custody such that India's planes can't attack them."

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After making this revealing statement, Bhutto continued, "You say you've frozen their bank accounts, I don't know... And what kind of freeze is this? The kind you'd imposed on Musharraf when he'd withdrawn money?"

He went on to make his most stunning allegation yet, claiming directly that Imran Khan's PTI party had taken the support of terror organisations and terrorist elements to win the 2018 Pakistan elections: 

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"So if you want Opposition's support you have to show your seriousness. Engage with and build the confidence of the Opposition. I've said it from the start... You have taken support from banned organisation to win the elections - after having mainstreamed banned organisations to gain their support, you're turning around to say 'look we've acted against our allies, look how good we are...' No, I don't buy it."

The Pakistan elections had been preceded by some highly abnormal behaviour. Not only was the Pakistani Army accused of backing Imran Khan (to the point of the word 'rigging' being applied) but in the year leading up to the elections, Pakistan's then PM Nawaz Sharif was removed and then jailed in a money laundering case, while 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed was released from a sham house arrest and given free rein to form a politico-terror outfit Milli Muslim League with which his terrorists contested the elections. 
 

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10:38 IST, March 21st 2019