MANSEHRA: Two activists of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz received bullet wounds when Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers allegedly fired at a rally organised by the former.

The tension had gripped the city after eight workers of PTI were injured when PML-N activists opened fire on a rally organised by the former on Thursday.

The latest firing incident occurred on the Abbottabad road when participants of a rally taken out by PML-N shouted anti-PTI slogans while passing by the district secretariat of PTI.

The injured identified as Mohammad Siddique and Basharat Kasana were taken to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital where condition of them was stated be out of danger.

PML-N activists demanded registration of FIR against the perpetrators of the firing incident.

Meanwhile, Babar Saleem Swati, PTI MPA-elect, said that participants of the PML-N rally fired at the central secretariat of their party, but fortunately no one was injured. He said that PTI workers did not fire at the PML-N rally.

Following the firing incident, law enforcement personnel sealed the area and the road leading to the district courts was also barricaded to avoid any unpleasant situation.

PTI’s and the contenders backed by it secured one national and two provincial assembly constituencies out oftwo national and five provincial assembly seats in the district, while PML-N secured the rest in the Wednesday’s general elections.

INDEPENDENT MNA-ELECT JOINS PTI: Salah Mohammad Khan Swati, MNA-elect from NA-13, joined Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Friday.

Salah Mohammad, who met PTI chairman Imran Khan at his Banigala residence in Islamabad in presence of former KP chief minister Pervez Khattak and Senator Azam Khan Swati, announced joining the PTI.

PTI sources said that Mr Salah, who secured the NA seat as an independent candidate, met Mr Khan and praised his vision of putting the country on way to prosperity.

Mr Salah, who was backed by PTI in the general elections, was elected as MPA on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ticket in the 2013 general elections, but later developed differences with the party leadership.

In the July 25 polls, he defeated PML-N’s Sardar Shahjehan Yousuf by a close margin of 1,500 votes.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2018