By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A former lawmaker was among five people wounded on Saturday when the police opened fire on a crowd of protesters who were challenging the results of a parliamentary election in a restive tribal region of Pakistan, officials and witnesses said.
The former lawmaker, Mohsin Dawar, who had run for a seat in the National Assembly from North Waziristan, a district in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was shot in the leg and taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition, his party said.
Dawar and his supporters had gathered outside the office of the returning officer, the official in charge of overseeing the vote count, to demand a recount and allege fraud by his rival candidate, Misbahuddin, a member of a rightwing party, Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam.
Dawar’s party, the National Democratic Movement, said he was leading by 3,000 votes on Thursday night, but the next morning, the returning officer declared Misbahuddin the winner by 10,000 votes.
The protesters tried to force their way into the office, but the police fired shots in the air to disperse them, said Shafiullah Wazir, a senior district official. He said five people, including Mr. Dawar, suffered minor injuries from the aerial firing.
“The situation is now under control and normal,” Wazir said.
But Ismail Mehsud, a senior leader of Dawar’s party, disputed the official account and said the police had deliberately targeted the protesters.
“They fired directly at us,” he said. “Five to eight of our supporters, including Dawar, were injured by bullets.”
He said the party would continue to protest until their grievances were addressed. “We will not accept these controversial results,” he said. “They have changed the results overnight.”
Dawar, a vocal critic of the military’s policies in the tribal areas, was a co-founder of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a civil rights group that emerged in 2018 to demand justice and accountability for the Pashtuns, an ethnic minority that has borne the brunt of the war on terrorism in the country.
He was elected to the National Assembly in 2018 as an independent candidate, but later formed his own party, the National Democratic Movement, which advocates for democratic reforms and regional autonomy.
He has survived several assassination attempts, including one in January, when gunmen fired at his vehicle in North Waziristan.
His party colleagues and other opposition leaders condemned the police action and called for an inquiry.
Afrasiab Khattak, another party leader, accused the law-enforcement personnel of opening fire on Dawar “without any provocation.”
Sardar Akhtar Mengal, the president of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, a nationalist party from the southwestern province of Balochistan, also expressed solidarity with Dawar and his party. “Everything is being done to change results,” he said on social media X.
Farhatullah Babar, a leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, demanded an investigation into the attack and punishment for the “trigger happy personnel” who fired at the former lawmaker.
Straight fire on @mjdawar by security forces today in Wazitistan, a repeat of #KharQamar, resulting in serious injuries is strongly condemned. Demand inquiry & punishment to trigger happy personnel. Wish speedy recovery to Mohsin and all injured.
— Farhatullah Babar (@FarhatullahB) February 10, 2024
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