Peshawar police baton-charge people protesting killing of 18 tribesmen

The Peshawar police on Wednesday night baton-charged and tear-gassed a peaceful sit-in organised by hundreds of tribesmen from Khyber Agency’s Bara tehsil who had gathered outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Governor’s House with the bodies of 16 of the 18 people assassinated “by men in uniform” early on Wednesday.
The authorities seemingly paid no heed to the sanctity of the bodies as they moved in to disperse the crowd. The police also brought along trucks and forced the bodies on to them as they made the protesters flee.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masud Kausar initiated dialogue with 10 representatives of the protesters on directives of the prime minister. But the dialogue apparently broke down sometime around midnight, making way for the action.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain expressed severe concern over the recent incident of violence in Bara, but said the incident fell in the jurisdiction of the federal government. He, however, said, “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government denounces violence and terrorism, wherever it happens.”
Per details, 18 bullet-riddled bodies were found in Alamgoodar area of Bara late on Tuesday.
The bodies were later shifted by Khasadar personnel to the office of the assistant political agent whereas they were recognised and handed over to relatives. The protesters and relatives of the victims alleged that the 18 people had been shot dead by uniformed personnel of security forces. However, officials of the Frontier Corps rejected the allegations, saying the dead had been shot by militants.
The protesters were later joined by leaders and stalwarts from political parties like Latif Afridi and Imran Afridi of the Awami National Party, Faisal Afridi of the Jamaat-e-Islami and others. Amidst sloganeering against the government, political administration and security forces, the protesters were addressed by leaders of other parties like Jamaat-e-Islami’s Prof Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl’s Abdul Jalil Jan and Maulana Rafique Shah.
The protesters did not permit MNA from Bara and ex-federal minister Hamidullah Jan to address them, forcing him to leave the area. The protesters demanded a detailed enquiry into the killing and an end to the so-called military action in Bara.