The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday withdrew a case pertaining to a clash at a Kharqamar military check post against the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement's (PTM) leaders and workers.

A first information report (FIR) was registered at the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Police Station, Bannu Range, against several PTM workers for allegedly attacking an army check post at Kharqamar in North Waziristan on May 26 last year. Fourteen people were killed and several others were injured in the clash.

Senior PTM members and MNAs Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir were nominated in the case along with others under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

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Wazir and Dawar, along with their supporters, were going to participate in a sit-in protest in the area when they were stopped by security forces at the Kharqamar check post, resulting in the deadly clash.

The KP government after registering the case also distributed compensation cheques among the families of the people killed in the clash.

On March 16, the KP law department had filed an application in the anti-terrorism court (ATC) of Bannu, stating that the government did not want to pursue the case. The application was filed through the Bannu district public prosecutor and ATC Bannu's senior public prosecutor.

On Wednesday, ATC Bannu judge Baber Ali Khan heard the case in Abbottabad due to security reasons, and accepted the government’s application. ATC Bannu’s public prosecutor Nawab Zareen confirmed the development, saying the court had accepted the application.

Another senior prosecutor present in the court told Dawn.com that it was a short hearing and the court disposed of the case by accepting the complainant’s application.

“The case is withdrawn and the accused stand acquitted,” he said.

MNA Dawar also confirmed that the government had withdrawn the case. He and Wazir also filed an application before the court today, requesting the judge to decide the case as per law after the submission of the withdrawal application.

“Applicants have categorically denied the charges levelled in the FIRs from [their] inception and have termed the same as false, bogus and trumped-up charges meant for political victimisation,” read the application, adding that there was no evidence to justify the prosecution's case.

PTM is a rights-based alliance that, besides calling for de-mining of the former tribal areas and greater freedom of movement, has insisted on an end to the practices of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions, and for their practitioners to be held to account within a truth and reconciliation framework.

In June, the group had accepted an offer for talks by the government but called for confidence-building measures (CBM) to demonstrate sincerity. At a press conference, PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen had said that the government must take steps to bridge the trust deficit, adding that it was customary for parties to take CBMs before entering into talks.