MANSEHRA: The police didn’t allow the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to hold the workers’ convention here on Sunday.

Around 35 police personnel “raided” the convention’s venue at the PTI’s Secretariat in the Hujra Saleem Khan area before the start of the event, according to party leaders.

They claimed that the police smashed the stage, bundled up chairs and took away loudspeakers and other electronic devices.

The PTI leaders said the secretariat was cordoned off all through the day.

As the police showed up, the party’s activists fled the venue.

Deputy commissioner Bilal Shahid Rao told reporters that he had received a letter from PTI district president Sardar Khan seeking a non-objection certificate for the workers’ convention.

“I forwarded the letter to the district police officer, who sent it to the assistant superintendent of police, who raised certain objections about the PTI’s event,” he said.

The deputy commissioner said he later promulgated Section 144 of the PPC banning the assembly of five or more people in the district.

After the police’s action, the PTI leaders and workers regrouped and announced that they would avoid confrontation with the district administration and police.

PTI district leader Basharat Khan announced the “postponement” of the workers convention and said the new schedule of the event would be made public soon.

“Being law-abiding citizens, we [PTI activists] don’t want to create a law and order situation here and therefore, we put off the workers’ convention. We will announce a new date for it soon,” he said.

Before the police’s raid, PTI Youth Wing president Kamal Saleem Swati told workers at the secretariat and said the police had planned to hamper the peaceful holding of the workers’ convention.

He urged PTI activists and sympathisers to attend the event in large numbers.

KILLED: A boy was killed and his grandmother was seriously injured when the boundary wall of a cattle pen collapsed in Bisian area of Balakot tehsil the other day.

Zahim Siraj, 3, and his grandmother were buried alive under the debris.

Family members and neighbours pulled them out and shifted to a nearby health centre, where doctors declared the child dead and referred the woman to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, Mansehra, due to serious condition.

The woman’s condition was stated to be stable in Mansehra hospital.

Meanwhile, a boy committed suicide in Qaziabad area of Battal.

Mohammad Naseer hanged himself from a ceiling hook in a house, according to additional SHO of Battal police station Ajmal Khan.

He said the police handed over the body to the family after doctors examined it and fulfilled medico-legal formalities.

He said the police registered an FIR and began an investigation to ascertain the cause of the death.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2023