CHARSADDA, May 22: Police on Wednesday arrested 18 people, including former provincial law minister and Awami National Party leader Arshad Abdullah, in Charsadda soon after the cancellation of their joint plea for interim bail extension.

Additional sessions judge Shahnaz Hameed Khattak cancelled the ex-minister and his aides’ pre-arrest bail in a police station attack case.

The police had booked the ex-minister and 23 others, including five policemen, for storming a police checkpost in Utmanzai area on April 26 this year and getting freed Farid Khan, who was arrested for carrying an unlicensed weapon. The five policemen were suspended soon after the attack.

After the arrest, the former minister denied involvement in the police checkpost attack and said he was busy in election campaign in Rajar area on the day of the happening.

He alleged that police bosses transferred Charsadda’s station house officers soon after the ANP government completed its term and that they ordered the registration of a fake case against him.

Mr Abdullah said police arrested ANP leaders and workers from hujras during their election campaigns and humiliated relatives of ANP leaders in violation of human rights. —Correspondent