Daily Times

The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday ordered the release of two Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) lawmakers arrested in May for allegedly inciting violent clashes with security forces.

“Justice Nasir Mehfooz from Peshawar High Court has accepted the bail application and ordered the release of Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir,” Tariq Afghan, one of the defence lawyers, said, adding that both the lawmakers were set to be released after completing legal formalities and paying bail.

Sangeen Khan, another defence lawyer familiar with the case, said the court accepted their bail application after finding contradictory reports in the investigation.

The two lawmakers have been held in custody for months over their alleged involvement in a violent clash at a rally near the Afghan border in the tribal region that killed 14 people. The two MNAs were initially charged in an FIR registered at the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Police Station Bannu on May 26 after a clash between PTM members and army personnel near the Kharqamar check post in North Waziristan. Separately, they were charged in the instant case registered on June 7 at the CTD Police Station Bannu after an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on a road in Doga Macha, North Waziristan, when an army convoy was passing through the area. The blast had left four army officials – a lieutenant colonel, a major, a captain and a lance havildar – martyred. A Bannu anti-terrorism court had last month granted bail to the PTM leaders in the second case pertaining to the blast in Doga Macha.