Pakistan Today

Balaclava-clad gunmen harass PTM members in Karachi’s Clifton

Zaki Abbas

In this Sunday, April 22, 2018 photo, Manzoor Pashteen, a leader of Pashtun Protection Movement addresses his supporters during a rally in Lahore, Pakistan. A Pakistani rights group in the country's troubled border region has been protesting police brutality, censorship and disappearances, drawing a police campaign against its members and deepening tensions. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

LAHORE: At least 15 to 20 masked men on late Wednesday night harassed members of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) campaigning for the upcoming PTM’s Karachi rally on May 13.

Speaking to Pakistan Today, a PTM member said that they were in a meeting in an apartment in Clifton, Karachi, when around 15-20 men in balaclavas and white clothes barged in with “Kalashnikov and TT pistols and forcefully frisked us while looking for weapons”.

“It felt like we are thieves the way they treated us,” the member went on to add.

However, one of them later left the room when he recognised PTM leader Ali Wazir, ostensibly to make a phone call, he said and added that the person, subsequently, came back and ordered his people to leave the room which was followed by an apology. The second half of the incident can also be seen in a video making rounds on social media, in which the person can be seen apologising to the PTM members amid protests by the occupants of the apartment.

The police, however, refused to comment on the incident.

The PTM member also said that the “law enforcement agencies are harassing them” as the rally day comes closer. To corroborate, he claimed that at least four of their members have been ‘disappeared’ in the wake of the rally preparations, with one going ‘missing’ on Wednesday. According to the PTM member, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) member Aimal Mandokhel was whisked away from a famous food joint in North Nazimabad area and there has been no report of his whereabouts, hitherto.

However, when Pakistan Today contacted SSP District Central Rizwan Ahmed Khan, under whose jurisdiction North Nazimabad falls in, he said police have not arrested any of the PTM members nor raided their meeting. “In fact, the police have not even interacted with the PTM as the latter has not organised any public meeting in the area,” the SSP said.

When asked whether an FIR was registered by the PTM concerning the disappearance of Aimal, the SSP responded in negative.

The PTM, later on, confirmed that they have not filed the FIR; however, a meeting was under way [at the time of the contact] to consider the possibility of filing an FIR [against the unknown persons].

Regarding the permission to hold the rally in the metropolitan, the SSP said the PTM has not been accorded permission by the district administration to hold their rally in the city. However, an application has already been filed by a PTM member, Hashim Mandokhel, at District East, and according to him, the authorities told him that the decision will be taken on Thursday.

It may be noted here that the PTM had earlier shared a video on social media, in which Rangers officials could be seen disrupting their small meeting and asking “some of the participants” to visit their headquarters.

In the wake of harassment and disappearance of its members, the PTM leader, Manzoor Pashteen, in a Facebook video said if their members were not released, the PTM and its supporters will hold protests in front of Pakistani embassies across the world and that the movement will hold sit-in in front of the Rangers Headquarters in Karachi as well.

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