ISLAMABAD: Threats received recently by the Kalash people of Chitral and Ismailis came from across the border, said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Advocate General Abdul Latif Yousufzai on Thursday.

“This is more of an external than internal threat and we have taken up the matter with the federal government,” he told a three-judge Supreme Court bench in response to a suo motu notice taken by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani.

The threats were issued allegedly by the media wing of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan on Feb 2 through a 50-minute video clip to launch an armed struggle against the Kalash people and Ismailis.

The polytheistic Kalash people were threatened to either convert to Islam or face death. They have always maintained their separate cultural traditions in Chitral valley.

Mr Yousufzai later told Dawn that the Kalash tribe had been facing threats from the Nuristan region, an Afghan province.

The court wanted to summon the commissioner of Chitral on Friday with an observation that using threat to change someone’s faith was against Articles 9 (security of person), 20 (freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions) and 36 (protection of minorities) of the Constitution.

But Mr Yousufzai said it was difficult for the officer to reach Islamabad at such a short notice since the road leading to Chitral was not accessible because of closure of the Lowari top. He assured the court that the matter was in the notice of the federal government.

The bench issued a notice to Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt for Feb 24 with a direction to apprise the court about the measures being taken by the government and security agencies for protecting these communities.

Referring to the Peshawar church bomb attack on Sept 22 last year, Mr Yousufzai said the provincial government had disbursed Rs67.8 million among the heirs of blast victims as compensation.

The bench had taken up a suo motu notice on an application filed by Saleem Michael and Nadeem Sheikh of the Minority Wing of ‘Justice Help Line’. The applicants requested the court to direct the authorities to identify and take action against those who attacked the church.