MANSEHRA: The police arrested Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Mufti Kifayatullah under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance here on Tuesday and shifted him to an undisclosed location.

The arrest was made during a raid by the personnel of the Saddar and city police stations on the seminary of the JUI-F leader in his native Tarangri area.

The federal cabinet had decided in December last year that Kifaytullah would be held for his diatribe against the Pakistan Army. He later went into hiding to escape arrest. However, the police arrested his two sons and three other family members.

The JUI-F activists protested the arrest of the former lawmaker on Abbottabad Road and demanded his immediate release shouting slogans against the government.

Qazi Habibur Rehman, elder brother of Mr Kifayatullah, confirmed the arrest and said a heavy contingent of police took away the JUI-F leader after raiding his seminary in Tarangri area.

He said he was unaware of the charge(s) against his brother and had to formally ask the police for a copy of the FIR registered against the detainee. Mr Kifayatullah was arrested last year as well after he led the funeral prayers of a party leader, who died of coronavirus.

SIT-IN: The tribesmen of Kolai area on Tuesday called off the Palas Bridge sit-in against the change of the district headquarters after three days.

The protesters, who had rejected the administration’s request to disperse a day ago, agreed to end the bridge blockade after a group of clerics from Upper and Lower Kohistan districts persuaded them to go away.

Maulana Noor Nabi, Maulana Sher Mohammad, Maulana Roshin Khan and others told protesters that the people of not only Kolai-Palas but also of Kohistan region were badly troubled by the blockade of the Palas Bridge, the only corridor in the district, and their misery would increase during Ramazan.

The Palas elders announced an end to the sit-in saying they will come up with a strategy on their demand after Eidul Fitr.

BODY FOUND: The Rescue 1122 divers on Tuesday recovered the body of a four-year-old boy from Balakot, who was thrown into the Kunhar River by his mother on Monday.

The body was handed over to the deceased’s family for burial. The police had arrested the woman, who threw his two sons into the river over differences with his husband.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2021