LAHORE    -    Defence Minister Khawaja Muham­mad Asif has said that the unfortu­nate incidents of May 9 were part of a planned, targeted and organised at­tempt of insurrection against the state.

Talking to the media after visiting the burnt Jinnah House [corps com­mander’s house in Lahore] here on Friday, he said that on May 9, the vi­olent groups deliberately attacked the installations, memorials, sym­bols and residences of an institu­tion in a well organised manner. He said that public reaction was always spontaneous, and all kinds of pub­lic or private properties were hit by them. But on the black day of May 9, only army’s properties, setups, stat­ues of martyrs, vehicles, buildings and soldiers were targeted.

Khawaja Asif said that the situa­tion created a question as to why such a reaction was not witnessed after the so-called assassination attack on Imran Khan. And why such a reaction was shown when he was merely taken into legal cus­tody, adding that it showed that the attacks on May 9 were planned somewhere else.

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Elaborating the background of the unprecedented reaction, he said that after his constitutional removal from the office of the prime minister through a successful no-confidence motion, Imran Khan had continuous­ly been targeting Pakistan Army and its leadership in his speeches.