Pakistan estimates 33 protesters to be tried in military courts for the May protests

May 26. (EUROPE PRESS) –

Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Rana Sanaulá, has responded to the rumors and has specified that only 33 of the more than 3,000 detainees for the violent protests on May 9 will be tried in military courts on terrorism charges.

“At least 19 defendants have been handed over to the military courts in Punjab and 14 in Khiber Pakhtunkhwa,” Sanaullah said at a press conference in Islamabad, adding that more than 3,000 people were arrested on terrorism charges during the protests.

Likewise, the head of the Pakistani Interior has indicated that another 5,000 protesters were arrested for other charges not related to terrorism, although 80 percent of the total were released “on bail,” according to what the newspaper ‘Dawn’ has reported.

With this, the Minister of the Interior has silenced the rumors that all those arrested are being tried in military courts. “Many analyzes and conspiracies have been disseminated, so the best thing was to appear and expose the facts and figures,” he stressed.

The 33 people facing terrorism charges are charged with “treaks of defense facilities.” “Going there, crossing the barriers, taking photos and disseminating them, what kind of protest is that?” Sanaulá asked himself.

Protests in Pakistan erupted after former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested in a corruption case, and in response, the army has been deployed in several cities across the country to contain protesters. The current ‘premier’, Shehbaz Sharif, said that the events of May 9 were a “show of a terrorist and anti-Pakistani agenda.”