SHANGLA: Police arrested Abdul Samad Khan, a lawyer and leader of banned Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), in a narcotics smuggling case and shifted him to a prison in Swat.

According to Alpuri police station SHO a man identified as Farmanullah was arrested with 900 kilograms of hashish some four days ago in Machar area. He said that the arrested man told police during investigation that the hashish was provided to him by Abdul Samad Khan, a resident of Bannu district.

He said that Farmanullah of Bely Baba confessed to narcotics smuggling and nominated Abdul Samad Khan in the case so the investigation team included Abdul Samad as co-accused in the case under Section 9 of Control of Narcotics Substances Act and arrested him.

The SHO said that Abdul Samad Khan was in the custody of Chitral police in a case of similar nature before he was arrested by Shangla police. After confession by Farmanullah, Chitral police handed over Samad Khan to Shangla police. He was produced in Shangla before a judge, who sent him to prison.

Advocate Waqif Shah, president of Shangla Bar Association, said that Abdul Samad Khan was a senior leader of PTM and also a senior lawyer, who had been the district president of ANP in Bannu before joining PTM.

He president said that after arrest of Abdul Samad Khan, police produced him in a court and sought his custody but he requested the judge that he was a guest and senior lawyer so should be sent to jail instead of granting his custody to police.

Mr Shah said the judge sent him to district prison in Swat. Lawyers and local leaders of PTM condemned the arrest of Abdul Samad Khan and termed it political victimisation for holding a jirga in Khyber tribal district in October last year.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2025