Alleged terror links: Police detain two G-B politicians

GILGIT: Police on Sunday said they had detained two leaders of the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) in Gilgit.

Safar Ali and Advocate Mehboob were arrested just before they were to address a press conference.

The BNF, a nationalist party, has been accused by some of having ties with India’s premier intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

But it is unclear whether these suspicions were behind Sunday’s arrests.

“We arrested them because we had been ordered to,” a police official said when asked why the two men were arrested.

The pair was later shifted to Cantt Police Station for further investigation. It was not clear whether police had booked the two men

A source privy to the development said the BNF leaders had organised the press conference to clarify their position regarding recent police allegations of sedition and treason.

Last month, the police claimed to have arrested members of a RAW-financed network planning to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2017.