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DPA
Islamabad
Thousands of people on Tuesday rallied across Pakistan against the arrest of a rights activist who publicly accuses the country’s powerful military of human rights abuses and secretly allying with Islamist militants.
“We demand the immediate release of Manzoor Pashteen,” Mohsin Dawar, a Pakistani lawmaker and a fellow activist of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), said at a rally in the capital.
Dawar was later arrested at the protest venue, Dawn news reported.
Activists from the movement that was founded to defend the rights of ethnic Pashtuns rallied in over a dozen cities across the country, demanding the release of the young activist.
A court in north-western city of Peshawar, where he was arrested a day earlier on five charges including sedition, rejected his bail application in the afternoon. The arrest resulted in condemnation and a diplomatic row between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan responded to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who had expressed concerns over the arrest in tweets. Ghani’s comments “are a clear interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs and hence unwarranted.” Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked the authorities to immediately release and drop charges against Pashteen.
“Using criminal laws to chill free expression and political opposition has no place in a democracy,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at the HRW.
Pashteen has drawn thousands of people onto the streets to protest the military and accuse it of human rights abuses, including kidnapping and targeting some groups and sparing others who fight in Afghanistan as proxies for Pakistan’s spy agencies. The United States and Afghanistan have been levelling the same accusations, but the PTM is the first local voice to speak out against the army.
Islamabad
Thousands of people on Tuesday rallied across Pakistan against the arrest of a rights activist who publicly accuses the country’s powerful military of human rights abuses and secretly allying with Islamist militants.
“We demand the immediate release of Manzoor Pashteen,” Mohsin Dawar, a Pakistani lawmaker and a fellow activist of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), said at a rally in the capital.
Dawar was later arrested at the protest venue, Dawn news reported.
Activists from the movement that was founded to defend the rights of ethnic Pashtuns rallied in over a dozen cities across the country, demanding the release of the young activist.
A court in north-western city of Peshawar, where he was arrested a day earlier on five charges including sedition, rejected his bail application in the afternoon. The arrest resulted in condemnation and a diplomatic row between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan responded to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who had expressed concerns over the arrest in tweets. Ghani’s comments “are a clear interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs and hence unwarranted.” Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked the authorities to immediately release and drop charges against Pashteen.
“Using criminal laws to chill free expression and political opposition has no place in a democracy,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at the HRW.
Pashteen has drawn thousands of people onto the streets to protest the military and accuse it of human rights abuses, including kidnapping and targeting some groups and sparing others who fight in Afghanistan as proxies for Pakistan’s spy agencies. The United States and Afghanistan have been levelling the same accusations, but the PTM is the first local voice to speak out against the army.
