Police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat district released Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) chief Manzoor Pashteen after keeping him in detention for almost eight hours on Friday, according to PTM leaders.
Kohat District Police Officer Sohail Khalid confirmed Pashteen’s release, saying he 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,” Ihtesham Afghan, a PTM leader, told Dawn.com.
According to Afghan, 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, a PTM source told Dawn.com that 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.
A police source confirmed this account; however, he said he did not know whether the arrest was made in an old case or after a new First Information Report (FIR) was registered.
He said at the time that police would release details about Pashteen’s arrest later.
