Thousands of people gathered to welcome Salar Faiyaz Ali, chairman of the left-wing Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP), in Pakistan after his release on Wednesday, January 14. Ali spent over two months in jail on false charges of terrorism.

Ali, along with two other leaders of the MKP, Momin Khan and Sher Mohammad, was arrested by the security forces on November 13 last year. He was charged under Pakistan’s anti-terrorist act for resisting the forced eviction of families in a village in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

Others arrested with Ali were also granted bail by a judge on Sunday. However, it took three days for the authorities to finalize their release.

MKP, which has been leading the movement for Ali’s release, welcomed the news of release with a large number of workers present outside the Mardan jail in Hashtnagar to receive them. The people present to receive Ali and others shouted slogans and vowed to continue the struggle for the rights of all people.

A large gathering was organized at Mandani Chowk in the city in the afternoon to celebrate Ali and others’ release. Thousands of people gathered from different parts of the province to attend the rally.

The speakers recounted the hardships MKP leaders faced inside the prison, rejecting the allegations against Ali as an attempt to keep him and the MKP silent. They expressed, nevertheless, that no amount of state repression will force Ali and the MKP to abandon their fight for the rights of people in the province.

Activists and members of the MKP across Pakistan celebrated the news of the release of Ali and his comrades, expressing their joy through several video messages pouring in from different parts of the country.

Fight for people’s right will continue

MKP under Ali’s leadership has been fighting for the land rights of poor and marginal farmers in the KP province for decades. It has led various agitations against the big landlord-state nexus, demanding land reforms in the province, which is still largely feudal.

Ramis Sohail, lawyer and MKP activist, told Peoples Dispatch that Ali and his comrades were charged with terrorism by the state due to pressure from the landlords in the region who do not want the MKP to function freely.

The landlords in the region see the MKP’s activities as antithetical to their own interests as the party advocates and works with peasants and workers. They aim to make the organization and its leadership dysfunctional as it threatens their fiefs and questions their power.

This is the reason that the MKP leaders repeatedly face intimidation, threats, and arrests by both the big landlords and the security forces in the province, the MKP member and lawyer explained.

Sohail underlined that Ali, who comes from the land rights movement in the region and was once an elected mayor, has been repeatedly targeted by the state authorities. Ali has been incarcerated in the past as well and is currently facing numerous cases due to his activism and visibility.

Ali has also been put on the prescribed offender’s list due to his participation in a traditional consultative assembly of local tribal groups.

Before his arrest in November, Ali’s residence was raided by a large contingent of state police and other security forces. Despite the fact that no evidence was found against Ali, he was booked under the anti-terrorist act.

Ali’s younger brother Salar Amjad Ali, a leader with the MKP, was also arrested in July last year when he led an agitation against an illegal land grab in the region.

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