Police release PTM chief after brief detention

THE REASON FOR HIS ARREST REMAINS UNKNOWN

Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement chief Manzoor Pashteen was released by the police on Friday evening after being detained for eight hours.

According to Kohat District Police Officer Sohail Khalid, the PTM chief was kept in police custody for a short period.

“We have just received information from Kohat that police officials have released the PTM chief and others,” a local news outlet reported PTM leader Ihtesham Afghan as saying. He said that the police had intercepted Pashteen and other activists on Khushalgarh Bridge, in the jurisdiction of Gumbat Police, early Friday morning while they were on their way to Bannu to attend a sit-in.

Earlier, the media outlet reported, Pashteen had planned to attend a sit-in in Bannu’s Janikhel area to protest the killing of a local resident. “Our chief’s vehicle was intercepted by police on Khushalgarh Bridge under the guise of security clearance,” the PTM member said, adding that police had not shared any details of Pashteen’s arrest with them. It could not be ascertained whether the arrest was made in an old case or after a new First Information Report was registered.

In March, police had booked Pashteen and three of his friends under the treason charge allegedly for raising slogans against Pakistan and state institutions.

However, in a tweet about the incident, Pashteen had maintained that he and his companions had come under attack by a group of 20 to 25 people while they were on their way back to Islamabad from Battagram after attending meetings.

Prior to that, the PTM chief was booked in multiple cases of sedition and was also arrested last year. The arrest was made after he had addressed a gathering in Dera Ismail Khan, where he had allegedly said the 1973 Constitution violated basic human rights and made derogatory remarks about the state.

Initially, Pashteen was arrested in a case registered against him at DI Khan’s City police station under Sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 124 (sedition), and 123-A (condemning the creation of the country and advocating the abolishment of its sovereignty) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

He was released from jail on February 25, 2020, after his bail applications in two sedition cases were accepted by a district court in DI Khan.

On February 15, 2020, a sessions court in Tank district had granted bail to Pashteen in two cases of sedition, while he was also granted bail in a similar case by a DI Khan court.