Islamabad police on Wednesday filed a case against Gulalai Ismail — a leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) — for allegedly defaming state institutions, creating unrest and inciting violence.

The first information report (FIR) lodged against the PTM leader mentions sections 500 (punishment for defamation), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups, etc) and 124-A (sedition) of the Pakistan Penal Code, as well as sections 6/7 of the Anti-terrorism Act, 1997.

According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn, Ismail purportedly incited law-abiding citizens to commit treason and violence, while addressing a protest demonstration against the brutal rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl named Farishta.

The FIR accuses Ismail of delivering hate speech, inciting ethnic sentiments against the state and Pakistan Army, and causing a sense of fear and terror among people.

PTM is a rights-based alliance that, besides calling for the de-mining of the former tribal areas and greater freedom of movement in the latter, has insisted on an end to the practices of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions, and for their practitioners to be held to account within a truth and reconciliation framework.