Pakistan: PTM leader Pashteen booked on terrorism charges for speech on extrajudicial killings

Punjab [Pakistan], October 26 (ANI): Pakistan’s civil rights movement, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Manzoor Pashteen has been booked on terrorism charges for making a speech on state reluctance to criminalise enforced disappearance and arbitrary detentions in Pakistan, media reports said.
Lahore Civil Lines police on Monday booked Pashteen on terrorism charges for making a speech at the Asma Jahangir Conference at a private hotel in a session ‘Reluctance to Criminalise Enforced Disappearance and Arbitrary Detentions’ which was also attended by activist Sammi Deen Baloch and former chief minister of Balochistan and chairperson of Balochistan National Party-Mengal Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal among others, reported Dawn.
During his speech, Pashteen alleged that the national institutions were behind the extrajudicial killings of people in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) tribal region in northwestern Pakistan under the policy of ‘state of exceptions.’
In a tweet, Pashteen said a case had been registered against him on charges of treason and terrorism. “The voices of truth against suppression and cruelty cannot be suppressed with FIRs, jail or propaganda. The solution lies only in the provision of justice,” he wrote in Urdu while sharing a copy of the FIR, reported Dawn.
Earlier, Pashteen also participated in the protests which were held across various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a van driver was shot dead and two schoolchildren were injured in a targeted attack in the Gulibagh area of Charbagh tehsil.
Thousands rallied in Mingora, Haripur, and Battagram in solidarity with the people of Swat, reported Dawn. Owners and teachers of various private educational institutions in Haripur staged a protest demonstration outside the press club. They were carrying placards and banners inscribed with demands for the early arrest of the attackers and restoration of peace in Swat and other areas of KP.
Students and teachers here held a rally on the main Karakoram Highway to condemn the rising incidents of militancy in Swat. The rally was held on the call of the Private Education Network Battagram chapter.
The family of a school van driver, killed in a gun attack, ended their over 40-hour protest following successful negotiations with the administration and buried his body. The incident sparked anger and protests across the district, after which students and teachers of private schools joined hands with the civil society and staged a protest at Nishat Chowk.
Earlier, the driver’s family and fellow villagers had placed his body on the main road and staged a sit-in at Gulibagh, demanding the arrest of the culprits, reported Dawn. Mingora echoed with slogans of “No more terrorism” and “We demand peace from the state” on Tuesday as hundreds of people took to the streets against the recent incidents of terrorism in the district.
They demanded the government arrest the attackers immediately, warning that otherwise they would march on the federal capital, reported Dawn. The mammoth rally in Mingora was organized by Swat Olasi Pasoon and attended by thousands of people, including civil society members, students, teachers, lawyers, doctors, transporters, and youth.
Prominent among the participants were Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement chief Manzoor Pashteen, Swat Olasi Pasoon President Fawad Khan, veteran politician Afrasiab Khattak, Awami National Party (ANP) KP President Aimal Wali Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, ANP parliamentary leader in the KP Assembly Sardar Hussain Babak, Mingora city Mayor Shahid Khan and other elders of Swat and KP. (ANI)