PTM lawmakers Ali Wazir, Mohsin Dawar released on bail

Both the parliamentarians were released from Haripur jail after midnight, says lawyer

PESHAWAR: Two Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) parliamentarians were released on bail in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) province after four months in detention, their lawyer said on Saturday.

The two lawmakers, Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, along with several activists of the PTM, were arrested after a deadly clash between Army troops and activists at a security post in northern Pakistan in May.

“Both the parliamentarians were released from Haripur jail after midnight,” Tariq Afghan, the lawyer for the two leaders told Reuters.

Group, led by MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Javed, assaults military check post in North Waziristan: ISPR

The military says the PTM is being funded by foreign intelligence agencies to stoke unrest in K-P after the Army defeated militants there.

MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Javed Dawar led the group of assailants, the military’s media wing had said in a statement.

However, the military spokesperson clarified “innocent PTM workers were not the culprits” and that only a few individuals were inciting local Pashtuns to violence.

According to a local count, 10 assailants lost their lives in the assault which also left 15 people, among them five soldiers, wounded – some of them seriously.

“The group assaulted the Kharqamar check post in Boya, in the tribal district of North Waziristan this morning,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in the statement. “The group wanted to exert pressure [on the troops] for the release of a suspected terrorists’ facilitator who was arrested the other day,” it added.

“[The] Troops at the check post exercised maximum restraint in the face of provocation and direct firing on the post,” the ISPR had said.