LOWER DIR: The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has denied involvement in the recent armed attack on PTI MPA Malik Liaquat Ali Khan here.

In a statement issued by spokesman for TTP Umer Khurasani on Wednesday, the militant group said it ‘strongly’ condemned the attack and was carrying out an investigation to check whether any of its members were involved in it.

It added that if the probe body found any of TTP members guilty, he would deal with in line with the Islamic law.

The TTP said it stuck to the ceasefire decided during talks with the government.

PEACE WALKS: The village council chairmen and councillors elected on general seats and those reserved for peasants held a peace walk in the district headquarters Timergara here on Wednesday.

Led by Timergara tehsil council chairman Mufti Irfanuddin, the participants walked from the district assembly’s hall to the National Bank Chowk in Balambat area.

They condemned the attack on MPA and killing of four people in it, and offered fateha for the deceased.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Maidan residents took to the streets in Kumbar area here on Tuesday against the attack.

During the Maidan Amn Walk led by the local elders, they carried banners and placards and shouted slogans for the restoration of peace.

The speakers, including PTI activist Ali Shah Mishwani, Jamaat-i-Islami Youth Wing leader Ateequr Rehman and others, said the attack was a bid to sabotage peace in the area.

They complained about the police’s failure to arrest attackers and warned that if the arrests weren’t made in the next three days, they would stage a sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2022