SWABI: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar met with the Swabi district leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf here on Saturday to review arrangements for August 14 ‘Azadi March’ on Islamabad.

Party sources said that Mr Qaisar held a meeting with PTI Swabi district president Anwar Haqdad and other activists in Shewa village where he had gone to offer ‘fateha’ for a party worker who passed away recently.

When contacted, Mr Haqdad told Dawn that vehicles full of party workers would leave early in the morning for Islamabad on August 14 to participate in the ‘Azadi March’ of the party.

He said that they would hold an important meeting on Monday and leaders and workers from all over the district would participate in it. The party office-bearers had been told to ensure their participation in the meeting.

Qaisar meets PTI workers in Swabi

Answering a question, he said that leaders and workers of the party would gather at each union council and afterwards they would reach the district headquarters, from where they would proceed to Swabi interchange of the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway to join the caravan of ‘Azadi March’ on Islamabad.

PTI district senior vice-president Mohammad Sohail said that at least one coach full of party workers from each union council would leave for Islamabad.

Meanwhile, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) chairman Shahram Khan Tarakai has also called his party meeting on Sunday (today) to finaalise preparations for ‘Azadi March’.

In addition, leaders of the PTI and AJIP have criticised the government’s policy to stop provision of petrol to prevent people from joining ‘Azadi March’.

Two killed

Two people were killed and one was injured in two incidents here on Saturday.

In the first incident one Anees Aman of Sherbaz Banda was killed and his friend Ibrahim injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them in Bamkhel area.

Injured Ibrahim told police in the district headquarters hospital that the attackers hiding in maize fields opened fire on them while they were going on a motorbike.

They were taken to hospital where Aman died. The police have registered the case. In the second incident, Jibran Khan of Zarobai drowned when he jumped into river to avoid arrest by police. Sources said that the police opened fire on a group of men on the river bank, which scared Jibran and he jumped into the river.

Local divers are making efforts to recover the body.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2014