According to media reports, two Pakistani lawmakers and human rights advocates were released on bail in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after four months in detention, their lawyer said on Saturday. The two lawmakers along with their supporters were apprehended in May. The lawmaker's party advocated for people who have been killed in extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances. 

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The offence

Reportedly, the two lawmakers, Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, accompanied with several activists of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), were arrested after a deadly clash between soldiers and activists at a security checkpoint in northern Pakistan in May. Their lawyer Tariq Aghan said to international media that both lawmakers were released from Haripur Jail after midnight.

As per reports, on May 26, soldiers at a security checkpoint fired on a group of protesters led by PTM leaders and serving lawmakers Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, reportedly, according to PTM representatives, who said 13 of their supporters died in the clash. The army said soldiers exchanged gunfire with the protesters when they attacked the checkpoint, and three of the attackers were killed.

On his release from jail, Dawar tweeted describing the incident as a massacre which read as in the aftermath, this state has ratcheted up even more violations of human rights and decency in the treatment of him and Ali. 

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Background

According to reports, PTM advocates against alleged extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of Pashtuns and other ethnic minorities. It was formed last year after the killing of a Pashtun man by police in the city of Karachi, which led to nationwide protests and turned the issue of alleged state violence against Pashtuns into a larger national debate.  The Pakistani military has alleged that the PTM is being funded by foreign intelligence authorities - a veiled reference to arch-rival India and its Afghan allies to ignite civil unrest in Pakistan’s Pashtun areas after the Pakistani army defeated Islamist terrorists there. The PTM has denied any foreign links. 

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