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Today's Paper | December 22, 2024

Updated 08 Jun, 2018 04:26pm

PTM leader Mohsin Dawar banned from entering North Waziristan for three months

Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leader Mohsin Dawar has been banned from entering North Waziristan for three months by the agency's political administration.

"Mr Mohsin Dawar is acting in a manner prejudicial to public peace and tranquility," the local political agent stated in a notification issued on Thursday. "He is instigating the people through provocative speeches against the state."

"This act of the individual is likely to create great disturbances in the agency and harm public order, thereby creating a law and order situation for the political administration," the notification said, adding that "it is necessary to prevent the said individual from acting in a manner prejudicial to public peace and tranquility".

The directive against Dawar was issued on June 7 under Section 5 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960. It banned him with immediate effect from entering North Waziristan Agency for a period of three months.

Dawar, a lawyer by profession, is an active member of the PTM. He was also the chairman of the organising committee of the National Youth Organisation — a sub-organisation of the Awami National Party — before he was removed from the position in March 2018.

The PTM — an organisation working for the rights of those affected by the war against militancy in tribal areas, especially those from South Waziristan — has staged protests in different parts of the country against alleged enforced disappearances, extrajudicial arrests and killings, as well as the alleged mistreatment of the Pakhtun community by security forces.

Curfew lifted in South Waziristan

The curfew in South Waziristan ended on Friday after a successful tribal jirga between the district’s political administration and 125 members of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe.

The successful negotiations mean that the four-day curfew, which had been imposed in the region on Sunday in the wake of a militant attack on the rally of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), was lifted.

At least four people, including two activists of the PTM, were killed and dozens of others injured in a militant attack in South Waziristan agency's headquarters of Wana on Sunday.

Sources had told DawnNewsTV that the militants had targeted a PTM rally that was organised to welcome one of the movement’s leaders, Ali Wazir.

The administration and the tribal members are expected to meet again for a grand jirga on July 25, according to political agent Sahal Khan.

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