Pak rights group condemns FIR against Pashtun leader Manzoor Pashteen
Oct 26, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], October 26 : The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has condemned the FIR against Pashtun leader Manzoor Pashteen and 20 others on charges of sedition and terrorism.
Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Manzoor Pashteen has been booked on terrorism charges for making a speech on the state's reluctance to criminalise enforced disappearance and arbitrary detentions.
"HRCP condemns the FIR against @ManzoorPashteen and 20 others on charges of sedition and terrorism, after he criticised the military at the Asma Jahangir Conference in Lahore. The timing of this FIR suggests it is an attempt to warn others against holding state agencies accountable for their transgressions," HRCP tweeted.
The Lahore-based group said that all citizens have the right to express their opinions and demand answers from any institution or agency accused of human rights violations. "The FIR must be withdrawn immediately and the use of this tactic stopped."
On Monday, Lahore Civil Lines police booked Pashteen on terrorism charges for making a speech on the topic of enforced disappearance and arbitrary detentions, the Dawn newspaper reported.
During his speech, Pashteen alleged that the national institutions were behind the extrajudicial killings of people in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) tribal region in northwestern Pakistan under the policy of 'state of exceptions.'
In a tweet, Pashteen said a case had been registered against him on charges of treason and terrorism. "The voices of truth against suppression and cruelty cannot be suppressed with FIRs, jail or propaganda. The solution lies only in the provision of justice," he wrote in Urdu while sharing a copy of the FIR, reported Dawn.
Earlier, Pashteen also participated in the protests which were held across various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a van driver was shot dead and two schoolchildren were injured in a targeted attack in the Swat district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
Thousands rallied in Mingora, Haripur, and Battagram in solidarity with the people of Swat, Dawn reported. Owners and teachers of various private educational institutions in Haripur staged a protest demonstration outside the press club.
They carried placards and banners inscribed with demands for the early arrest of the attackers and restoration of peace in Swat and other areas of KP.
