KHYBER: The Khyber administration on Tuesday imposed Section 144 for one month, banning ‘illegal’ gatherings and assembling of five or more people in any part of the district.

A notification issued from the Khyber House said the ban was imposed in light of the existing security situation and the threat alert.

It said display of any type of firearms had also been banned, and that action would be taken against the violators of the restriction under Section 188.

These restrictions were imposed in the wake of an already announced three-day Awami Jirga Adalat by the recently proscribed Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement in Jamrud, starting Oct 11.

PTM activists, however, resolved to hold their event at any cost with hundreds of them already stationed at the venue of the gathering. Videos posted on social media by PTM showed its activists engaged in physical exercises during the daytime while enjoying music in the night with traditional Attanr dances.

The Peshawar and Khyber police had uprooted the PTM camp on Oct 2, and later torched the entire camping material, while also resorting to teargas and firing in the air to keep PTM activists away from the venue.

Meanwhile, the government has placed the names of Kukikhel elder Malak Naseer Ahmad, a firebrand Jamaat-i-Islami leader Khan Wali and PTM activists Aftab Shinwari and Hussain Ahmad along with six other persons in the Fourth Schedule of Anti- Terrorism Act, 1997.

The authorities, however, have not given any explicit reasons for initiating such action against these people.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024