Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leader and MNA Mohsin Dawar on Wednesday morning confirmed he had been released from jail, adding that other protesters remained in custody, a day after they were arrested from outside Islamabad’s National Press Club.
Meanwhile, a case was registered against attendees of the protest on various charges including sedition. Dawar was not included in the first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn.com.
Dawn.com has reached out to police for a comment and awaits their response on the development.
On Tuesday, Islamabad police had arrested Dawar and 28 other PTM workers from outside the press club where they had gathered to stage a protest against the arrest of the group’s chief, Manzoor Pashteen, who was arrested from Peshawar on Monday and shifted to Dera Ismail Khan in a sedition case pertaining to a speech he made in Dera Ismail Khan on Jan 18.
In a post on Twitter, Dawar said the PTM was protesting against the arrest of Pashteen during which they were arrested.
“There wasn’t a single report of violence by protesters from around the world. I attended the protest in Islamabad and the protesters here were as peaceful as in the other places,” he said.
In a subsequent tweet, he added: “However, the state reminded us once again that our rights don’t mean much as they didn’t bother to create even flimsy grounds for our arrests. I was dragged along with other comrades of PTM and [Awami Workers Party] AWP including Ismat Shahjahan, Ammar Rashid and many others.”
The MNA said that following the arrests they were distributed to various police stations.
“I was told by the police that they were setting me free. I told them that I will not go until all the others are set free as well. Then they came back again, telling me that they will set all free so I decided to leave,” he wrote.
Dawar, however, said he had since found out that some of the protesters were still in jail, adding that after getting a full idea of the number of protesters still in custody, they would protest until all were released.
“As our freedoms are shrinking silence is not an option. The fight to win back our right to dissent, is a common cause that transcends ethnicities and beliefs. Speak up and be counted, your life means nothing if you don’t have the freedom to disagree,” he concluded.
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Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leader and MNA Mohsin Dawar were taken into custody on Tuesday in Islamabad, said Kohsar police Station House Officer (SHO) Akhtar Ali.
SHO Ali said that 15 workers of PTM, including Dawar, had been taken to Kohsar police station from outside the National Press Club in Islamabad, where they were demonstrating against the group’s chief Manzoor Pashteen’s arrest. The total number of arrested demonstrators, however, can be higher.
A journalist Khan Zeb was also among those arrested and was earlier misidentified by the police as PTM leader and MNA Ali Wazir, who was part of the protest.
SHO Ali later confirmed that Wazir had not been taken into custody and it was in fact the journalist, Khan Zeb, whom the police had believed to be Wazir. The journalist, the SHO told DawnNewsTV, would be released soon.
The development was also confirmed by Dawar.
“We are in police custody and [have been] shifted to Kohsar police station,” he told DawnNewsTV via text message.
The reason for the arrests was not immediately clear. However, a police official, who spoke to DawnNewsTV on condition of anonymity, said that the protesters were arrested on the orders of higher authorities.
A large number of supporters and PTM workers were attending the protest, including politicians Afrasiab Khattak and Bushra Gohar.
A video, shared by BBC correspondent Secunder Kermani on Twitter, purportedly showed the PTM leaders being arrested by the police.
