In the snippet from Kamran Shahid’s night show, Kamran Sahid asks Rana Sanaullah, “Is this the mandate that you have been given? To become the Minister of Law and Justice and kill people?” The anchorperson was referring to the Model Town incident that took place in 2014.
The Model Town operation, more commonly known as the Model Town tragedy or the Lahore massacre, or simply Lahore incident, was a violent clash that ensued between the Punjab Police and Pakistan Awami Tehreek activists on 17 June 2014 resulting in several protesters being killed by the police gunfire.
The standoff lasted for almost 11 hours when the police’s anti-encroachment squad launched an operation to remove the barriers from the road leading to the offices of Minhaj-ul-Quran and the residence of PAT founder Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri in Model Town, Lahore, even though police officials were given a court order by PAT leaders.
Read more: Model Town Massacre: Will the victims ever get justice?
The incident was broadcast live on various local news channels and there were conflicting accounts of how the standoff began. Police claimed that they were attacked by people inside the PAT secretariat, a claim that is denied by party chief Qadri. In the live footage broadcast on television, the policemen were shown firing assault rifles and lobbing tear gas canisters at the protesting masses while the protesters threw stones at the police. 17 people were killed and more than 100 injured.
In the resurfaced video, Kamran Shahid also says to Rana Sanaullah that the people of Model Town were killed because Sanaullah ordered the police to do so. In response, Sanaullah says “they ordered the police to kill people” and Kamran replies “who are they?”. In reply, Sanaullah says “the ones who gave you the reports (on model town incident)”. According to the twitter user who posted the video, Sanaullah was referring to the Pakistan Army and blaming it for the killing of innocent people in Model town. Amid the ongoing crack-down on the so-called anti-establishment narratives, the twitter user thinks that Sanaullah should be arrested for what he implied in the video.
https://twitter.com/HoorainY/status/1557309046012940288
The argument gets more heated when Kamran says “Who are you talking about? ISSI? IB?” to which Sanaullah says, “Yes you should tell us who gave you the reports”. Kamran Shahid fires back at Sanaullah by saying that it is Sanaullah, not Kamran, who is accused of the crime because there is an FIR against Sanaullah. In answer, Sanaullah tries to divert from the topic by counter accusing Kamran Shahid of being a foreign agent.
Read more: Promotion of officer accused in Model Town case raises questions
PMLN leaders on many occasions have slandered the army but now, they have become “pro” establishment and label their past slander on army as “positive criticism”.