PTM postpones Razmak rally after jirga

PESHAWAR: The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) on Tuesday accepted the demand of the government-appointed committee to postpone the protest rally in Razmak in North Waziristan.

The announcement was made after a jirga at the residence of former lawmaker Shah Jee Gul Afridi in Hayatabad in Peshawar.

The tribal elders including Malik Khan Marjan, Ajmal Wazir, a former provincial minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader, Shah Farman represented the government while Mohsin Dawar represented the PTM.

A senior PTM leader, Ali Wazir could not reach from Dera Ismail Khan to attend the jirga but participated in the proceedings by telephone.

After holding the jirga, the PTM agreed to cancel its rally scheduled to be held on third day of Eidul Fitr in Razmak area of North Waziristan.

Also, the jirga members assured the PTM leadership that all their activists detained by the law-enforcement agencies would be freed on Wednesday.

According to Mohsin Dawar, around 100 of their activists had been detained from Islamabad, Wana in South Waziristan and Mir Ali subdivision of North Waziristan.

Malik Khan Marjan said the PTM leadership assured the jirga members that its activists would avoid using anti-military and anti-state slogans in their gatherings.

Talking to The News after the jirga meeting, Mohsin Dawar said he and other PTM leaders had never passed negative remarks to malign the state institutions.