Bail denied to Pak's Pashtun minority leader Pashteen

Peshawar: A Pakistani court on Tuesday rejected the transit bail plea of a prominent Pashtun minority leader, known for criticising the country's powerful military, and ordered his transfer to another jail, a day after he was arrested for alleged sedition, leading to calls for his immediate

release.

Manzoor Pashteen, chief of the rights-based alliance Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), attended a gathering on January 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Dera Ismail Khan city where he had allegedly said that the 1973 Constitution violated basic human rights, Dawn newspaper

reported.

The 27-year-old activist, arrested along with nine other PTM workers from Peshawar, was earlier sent to Peshawar's Central Jail on a 14-day judicial remand by a

magistrate.

District and sessions judge Muhammad Younis accepted the police's request to shift Pashteen to a jail in Dera Ismail Khan, where a first information report (FIR) has been registered against him, Dawn newspaper

reported.

The request of a transit bail to Pashteen, who was represented by his lawyers, was rejected by the court, the report

said.