Imran Khan's allegations have increased threats against father Zardari, family: Pak Foreign Minister Bilwal Bhutto

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto on Saturday said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan's allegations against former president Asif Ali Zardari have increased threats against his father (Zardari), his family and the party, Pakistan based The News International newspaper reported. Khan on Friday accused former Pakistan president and the PPP co-Chairman Zardari of hatching a conspiracy to assassinate him by giving a contract to a terrorist outfit.

Bhutto said that after terrorist outfits called him and his party out by name in direct threats, the PTI chairman had now made false accusations against his father Asif Zardari. "We take them (threats) seriously given our history," Bilawal said in a tweet, adding that the PPP will explore legal options against Imran Khan.

"We are exploring legal response to Imran latest defamatory and dangerous accusations. In the past, he threatened my father that he was 'in the crosshairs of his gun'. His [Imran's] and his associates' history as both sympathisers and facilitators of terrorists are well documented," Bhutto, as quoted by The News International newspaper, said. "We will not tolerate being victims of terrorists and put up with propaganda from their political frontmen," he further tweeted.

According to Bhutto, when Imran was in power, he released terrorists and arrested democrats, handed over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to terrorist organisations, and that his party funds terrorist groups to this day. "All of this will be taken into account if any attack takes place against me, my father or my party," he said.

"His [Imran's] latest accusation that my family has any association with a terrorist organisation or that we would employ them to cause harm not only defies logic but exposes all of us to an increased threat," Bilawal Bhutto added, as quoted by The News International newspaper. Last Friday, Khan while holding a news conference from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore via a video link, termed the alleged conspiracy 'Plan-C' for which he accused Zardari of paying money to a terrorist outfit to carry out the assassination attempt, the Pakistan-based newspaper reported.

"Now they have made a Plan C, and Asif Zardari is behind this. He has loads of corruption money, which he loots from the Sindh government and spends on winning elections. He [Zardari] has given money to a terrorist outfit and people from powerful agencies are facilitating him," Imran Khan said, according to The Express Tribune Newspaper. "This has been decided on three fronts and they will act soon," he added. "I am telling you this because if something happens to me the nation should know the people who were behind this so that the nation never forgives them," Khan said.

Khan, while referring to the gun attack on him in Wazirabad in November last year, said that there was a plot to kill him under 'Plan-B' in the name of religious extremism. "They almost succeeded in their plan to kill me but now they are moving towards Plan-C," he alleged.