Bureau Report
Peshawar: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government on Wednesday withdrew the Kharqamar case against the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), and MNAs Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir Khan have been acquitted of all charges.
A first information report (FIR) was registered against PTM workers at the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Police Station, Bannu Range, for allegedly attacking a military checkpoint at Kharqamar in North Waziristan on May 26 last year.
Thirteen people were killed and multiple were injured when the clash occurred. Wazir and Dawar, among others, were on their way to a sit-in protest when they were stopped by security forces at the Kharqamar checkpoint. This subsequently led to the deadly clash.
The KP government distributed compensation cheques to the families of the victims.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had stated that a group led by Dawar and Ali Wazir assaulted Kharqamar check post in Boyya, North Waziristan tribal district on May 26, adding that five soldiers had been injured in the clash. According to the ISPR, three individuals who had attacked the check post lost their lives while the 10 injured were evacuated to the Army hospital for treatment. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has filed a petition, requesting the court that it wanted to withdraw the case.
The case was first heard by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Bannu, but was then transferred to an ATC in Abbottabad.
Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, along with senior PTM members, nominated under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance and the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Previously, the KP government on March 16 had filed an application in the Bannu anti-terrorism court saying that the government wished to withdraw the case. The application was filed on behalf of the State through Bannu district public prosecutor and ATC Bannu’s senior public prosecutor.
“The state/government as per instructions of the provincial government with reference to the prevailing situation, we intend to withdraw prosecution of the subject case,” the application read.
