FATA student leader held for ‘protesting against FCR’

FSO central president Shaukat Aziz arrested under 3 MPO

SHABQADAR: Peshawar district administration has arrested Fata Student Organisation's (FSO) central president for 'protesting' against the Frontiers Crimes Regulation (FCR).

Shaukat Aziz was rounded up under 3 MPO (Maintenance of Public Order) after he chanted slogans against a tribal chief who spoke in favour of the FCR during the grand jirga called by the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) last week.



The scuffle was so intense that security staff evacuated the chief guest, K-P Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, who is also Fata’s chief executive, and the provincial assembly speaker Asad Qaisar. The brawl sparked after provocative comments were made by Khan Marjan, a tribal chief from North Waziristan.

Terming the members of the reforms committee traitors, he said tribal areas had been destroyed and Fata’s public representatives in the National Assembly were unaware of ground realities. “Whatever you (the committee) have written in the report is nothing short of an insult to the tribesmen,” were Marjan’s last words, after which the hall reverberated with anti-FCR slogans.

“After his arrest Aziz has been sent to Central Jail, Peshawar,” said Samreen Wazir, general secretary of FSO’s female wing. “We will hold a protest in Peshawar if he's not released by tomorrow."



Wazir claimed that the FSO peacefully carried out their protest, saying “It is our political right to chant slogans against the FCR, and the arrest is against the spirit of democracy.”

Aziz was called by the deputy commissioner and asked to present a surety bond for not protesting in future, FSO president Amir Hamza Kuram told The Express Tribune. However, Aziz was taken into custody and sent to prison before he could submit the bond.

DC’s version

However, K-P Deputy Commissioner Riaz Mehsud told The Express Tribune that the FSO president was held after a complainant, Sajid, informed his office that the accused was issuing him death threats.