Assault charges: Teenager suspected of slapping PTI MNA secures bail

ABBOTTABAD: The teenager who allegedly thrashed a PTI MNA during a public event secured bail from a local court on Friday.

Zainul Islam Tanoli, a native of Lassan Nawab Sahib village in Mansehra, had physically assaulted PTI’s MNA from NA 17 Dr Azhar Khan Jadoon when he was sitting on the stage with other guests at the launch ceremony of the provincial government’s Sehat Ka Insaf cards at Jalal Baba Auditorium on December 29.

Some provincial ministers and MPAs were also accompanying Jadoon when Tanoli rushed forward from the audience, jumped on stage and slapped the MNA repeatedly.

The MNA’s supporters then thrashed the boy before policemen arrested him and took him to Cantonment Police Station, where a criminal case was registered against him under sections 355, 506 and 511 of the PPC and he was sent to Mansehra District Jail on judicial remand the next day.

Disclosing the reasons behind his alleged crime, Tanoli told the media that he wanted to exact revenge for a perceived insult of Lt Gen (retd) Ayaz Salim Rana, who was allegedly slapped by some of the relatives of MNA during a funeral in Nawanshehr.

Gen Salim publicly condemned the assault and disowned the teenage attacker’s actions, adding that whatever the attacker had done was a personal act and he did not even know who he was.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2017.