Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Peshawar government has allowed Pashtoon Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) to hold rally in the provincial metropolis on Sunday amid heightened security threats.

The government had imposed a ban on PTM’s scheduled ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ rally in Hayatabad after the counter-terrorism department (CTD) issued a threat alert.

According to the alert, the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had been planning to launch attack on political gatherings.”The officials concerned have decided following a meeting held in the provincial capital to permit the PTM to hold its rally,” a senior district administration official said. A no-objection certificate (NOC) has been issued allowing the PTM to hold its gathering, the official said, adding that it was a policy decision.

The previously lesser known organisation gained some fame after it organised a rally against the extrajudicial killing of Waziristan youth Naqeebullah Mehsud and called for the arrest of former SSP Karachi Rao Anwar.

The PTM has been facing immense resistance at the same time as Awami National Party (ANP) has already distanced itself from the movement.

Considering the organisation a rising threat, large demonstrations were held in Mohmand, Khyber and Kurram agencies and also in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat, Shabqadar and Charsadda areas against the organisation.The protesters alleged that PTM was being funded by Indian and Afghan spy agencies Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS).

Published in Daily Times, April 8^th 2018.