BANNU: A local court on Friday sent MNA Mohsin Javed Dawar to the Peshawar central prison after completion of his eight-day physical remand in the custody of the Counter-Terrorism Depa­rtment (CTD).

In the absence of the ant-terrorism court’s special judge due to the Eid holidays, Mr Dawar was produced before a civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate, Inam Ullah, amid strict security.

The CTD officials requested the judge for further physical custody of Mr Dawar, a leader of the Pashtun Tahaafuz Movement (PTM), but the court turned down their plea and sent the MNA on judicial remand to prison with a directive to produce him again on June 19.

On June 4, another arrested MNA and leader of the PTM, Ali Wazir, had been sent to prison. Mr Wazir, who was arrested on May 26 after a clash between PTM members and army personnel near Kharqamar check post in North Waziristan, had also remained in CTD’s custody for eight days.

Mr Dawar surrendered to the administration on May 30 after a Jirga intervened and the government had announced compensation for the families of 13 persons killed and several others injured in the incident.

Advocate Shah Qiyaz Khan, the counsel for the two MNAs, said that his clients’ physical remand had ended and they were now in prison. Therefore, he added, petitions for their bail would be filed before the anti-terrorism court.

He claimed that there was no evidence against both MNAs for which they could be kept in further detention.

Meanwhile, two other leaders of the PTM, Idress Pashteen and Abdullah Nangyal, were taken into custody by the CTD in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, respectively.

A PTM member said that Idress was arrested on Thursday and Abdullah on Friday.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2019