Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) chief Manzoor Pashteen was arrested after police were fired at from his vehicle, Chaman Deputy Commissioner Raja Athar Abbas said on Monday.

The statement came nearly four hours after the PTM itself alleged that Pashteen’s vehicle was fired at by law enforcement agencies (LEAs) while he was on his way from Chaman to Turbat — where protests have been taking place against an alleged extra-judicial killing.

Speaking to Dawn.com, Abbas said Levies and police personnel had arrested the PTM leader from the Gudhamo area. “Today, police were fired at from Pashteen’s car on Mall Road,” the official said, adding that a case had also been registered against the PTM leader.

He said that Pashteen was arrested in connection with today’s incident as well as a ban on his entry into Balochistan. He said that the PTM leader would later be presented before a district magistrate.

However, the PTM had earlier stated that Pashteen, alongside a caravan, was headed from Chaman to Turbat when “police and army carried out straight firing on his vehicle”.

The statement by the PTM’s social media team was posted on Pashteen’s account on X. It also said that efforts were under way to arrest the party chief and “police, Frontier Corps and the army had besieged” the area.

Meanwhile, Caretaker Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai had stated earlier today that the PTM was an “anti-Pakistan organisation”. He said that Pashteen had been banned from entering Balochistan and the same had also been notified three times by the interior ministry.

“He still came to Chaman and staged a rally without the government’s permission. They should have left but he sought refuge in a village […]. He was hiding there with his guards,” he said while responding to a question during a press conference in Quetta.

“We have no information about any firing. [He] has his own guards, firing can also happen because of them,” the minister said.