MNA Mohsin Dawar surrenders

PESHAWAR: Senior leader of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) and Member National Assembly Mohsin Dawar on Thursday surrendered to the government after defying arrest for four days and was produced in the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Bannu.

The special judge ATC, Babar Ali Khan, handed him over to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the police on an eight-day physical remand. His lawyer said Mohsin Javed agreed to the decision of a tribal jirga and opted to surrender to the law-enforcement agencies. Earlier, a tribal jirga had conveyed to him a message from the authorities that the only legal way for him was to surrender and appear in the court to answer charges.

He had been nominated in the First Information Report (FIR) to answer serious charges for leading a mob that assaulted a security forces’ check-post in North Waziristan. Mohsin Dawar, whose given name is Mohsin Javed, had defied arrest since the May 26 incident at the Khar Qamar in the Macha Madakhel area in Boya. He managed to reach a village that was considered safe. From there, he maintained contact with sections of the media and recorded a statement that went viral to present his version of events that happened at the Khar Qamar checkpoint.

Meanwhile, the tribesmen and activists of the PTM accepted a jirga that came in “nanawatay (forgiveness or asylum) sent by the local district administration on behalf of the government and postponed their protest and sit-in till Eidul Fitr.

According to official and tribal sources in Miramshah, the district headquarters of North Waziristan tribal district, the local administration had sent a jirga of tribal elders with four sheep, as gesture to seek forgiveness of the affected tribes -- Utmanzai and Dawar -- for their losses during the alleged clashes between the security forces and PTM activists. Besides other protesters, the security forces had arrested MNA Ali Wazir and handed him over to the CTD.

DG ISPR Maj-Asif Ghafoor had earlier claimed that five people were killed in the clashes. However, the tribesmen in Miranshah on Thursday released a list of the 13 people killed in the clashes.

Two PTM parliamentarians -- Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir from North Waziristan and South Waziristan, respectively, led the protesters that had tried to force their way past the security check-post. As many as 13 people were killed and over 30 others were injured in the clashes and alleged firing of security forces.