Pak Supreme Court directs police to register FIR of attack on Imran Khan within 24 hours
Islamabad (PTI): Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Inspector General of the Punjab province to register a case on the gun attack on Imran Khan within 24 hours, a directive hailed by the former prime minister's party as a first step towards justice.
On Sunday, Khan said that an FIR has not been registered on the botched "assassination attempt" on his life as authorities are refusing to file the case unless he removes an Army general's name from the complaint.
Khan, who suffered bullet injuries in the right leg on Thursday, was discharged from the hospital on Sunday after undergoing successful surgery. The 70-year-old former prime minister has now been moved to a private residence in Lahore.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed Punjab police chief Faisal Shahkar to register an FIR of the gun attack on Khan within 24 hours, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said that the apex court would take suo motu notice if the FIR was not registered, the report added.
He also asked Shahkar, who joined the hearing from the SC's Lahore registry via video link, why the FIR was not registered.
Tell us when the FIR will be registered, he said, adding that there should be a concrete reason for not registering the FIR.
Working according to the law, the court is with you, the CJP said, directing the IG to get officials to probe into the matter.
The CJP assured the provincial police chief that nobody would interfere in his work till the time he was posted at the IG.
IG sahib, you do your job. If someone interferes, the court would interfere in their work, he said.
Meanwhile, PTI's Fawad Chaudhry has termed the Supreme Court's directives regarding the registration of a first information report on the attack against Imran as the first step towards justice
Shahkar who has decided to resign from the Punjab government and refused to work with the current political setup in the province led by Chief Minister Parvez Elahi informed the court that we have spoken to the Punjab Chief Minister regarding the registration of the FIR and he has expressed some reservations .
He further said an FIR should also be registered on the complaint of the heirs of the man who was killed in the incident.
Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, alleged that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal Naseer were part of a sinister plot to assassinate him in the same way former Punjab governor Salman Taseer was killed in 2011 by a religious extremist.
He also said that an FIR was not being registered as some people were afraid of (some names).
The deadlock stemmed from Khan's insistence on naming the Army officer in the FIR.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
