Court orders Manzoor Pashteen's transfer to DI Khan jail after rejecting bail

A Peshawar court ordered Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) chief Manzoor Pashteen's transfer to a Dera Ismail Khan jail in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after turning down his request for a transit bail on Tuesday.

The court's decision comes a day after Pashteen was arrested and sent to Peshawar Central jail on a 14-day judicial remand, Dawn reported.

District and sessions judge Muhammad Younis accepted the DI Khan police's request for permission to shift the PTM chief to DI Khan, where a first information report (FIR) was registered against him for making derogatory remarks about the state.

Pashteen, who was not presented in court during today's proceedings, was represented by his lawyers including Shahab Khattak, Farhat Afridi, and Advocate Fazl.

After Pashteen is shifted to DI Khan, he is expected to be presented before a judicial magistrate for physical remand.

The PTM chief was arrested on Monday from Peshawar's Shaheen Town.

PTM is a rights-based alliance that, besides calling for the de-mining of the former tribal areas and greater freedom of movement in the latter, has insisted on an end to the practices of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions, and for their practitioners to be held to account within a truth and reconciliation framework.

The party has been critical of the state's policies in the country's tribal belt, where a massive operation against terrorists was conducted in recent times leading to large-scale displacement and enforced disappearances.