May 9 violence: Those sheltering perpetrators of violence to face cases

PESHAWAR: The police have started lodging cases against the locals who had sheltered the main accused involved in violence during protests by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on May 9,10. The government recently decided to lodge cases against all those helping the accused in avoiding arrests in cases of violence on May 9 and 10. “The first case was lodged the other day against local political workers in Gagra Police Station in Buner district for sheltering those wanted by the police for violence on May 9,” an official told The News. The case was lodged under 212-34 the Pakistan Penal Code against two locals Hastam Khan and Bakhtiar Ali. A former MNA Shahid Khattak and youth leader Meena Khan were arrested by the Peshawar Police from Buner a couple of days back. “So far only one case has been registered in Buner for helping the main accused in avoiding arrest,” an official confirmed.

The official said more cases would be lodged against the facilitators of the accused wanted by the police in connection with 102 cases registered in different police stations of the province. Out of these, 18 cases are lodged under the Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) for torching and ransacking state properties. An official informed this scribe that over 1,200 people had been arrested across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 18 cases lodged under the 7ATA. Around 2,900 have been held from different districts of the province for involvement in 102 FIRs lodged against the protestors. A number of the prominent workers and leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, former ministers, MNAs and MPAs have been hiding since lodging of cases against them. An official said cases of several senior PTI leaders in KP had been sent to Federal Investigation Agency to stop them from leaving the country via borders or airports. So far hundreds of raids were conducted on hujras of those nominated in FIRs in the last three weeks.