Pakistani authorities released a Pashtun parliamentarian and civil rights leader hours after detaining him during a peaceful demonstration, a police official said Wednesday, but more than 20 other demonstrators held with him remained in custody.

Mohsin Dawar, a sitting MP and a senior member of the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM), was detained along with 23 supporters on Tuesday when he was leading a demonstration in Islamabad against the arrest of Manzoor Pashteen, chief of the group.

Dawar, who was also detained for months last year for allegedly inciting violent clashes with security forces during another protest, was released late Tuesday, a police spokesman told AFP. Pashteen, the former veterinary student turned thorn in the military's side, was arrested on Monday in Peshawar. He is facing charges including sedition, hate speech, incitement against the state, and criminal conspiracy.

PTM leaders have called on their supporters to stay calm after Pashteen's arrest. His lawyer Asad Aziz Mehsud said Pashteen has been remanded in Dera Ismail Khan, and will seek bail on Thursday.

BR staff reporter adds: A local court on Wednesday sent Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) workers, who were arrested for protesting the arrest of PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen and violating the section 144 earlier imposed in the city, to Adiala Jail on judicial remand. Police on January 28 arrested over 29 workers of PTM, including MNA Mohsin Dawar from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's tribal district, when they were protesting in front of National Press Club. However, police later in the night released MNA Dawar, his driver and some female PTM workers. Kohsar police produced the arrested workers before Magistrate Shoaib Akhtar and requested the court to send them to jail on judicial remand.

Defense counsel Asad Jamal while objecting to the request of police said those who have been arrested by police were staging peaceful protest which is their constitutional right. Under pressure, police registered first information report (FIR) against peaceful protesters, he further argued before the court. He said that police case is based in bad faith. Police registered FIR under sections 505-A (defaming army), 505-B (statements conducing to public mischief) and 124-A (sedition) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which are not applied in this case, he said. The counsel said that police stated that protesters chanted slogans against armed forces. He requested the court to discharge this case as police have arrested peaceful protesters.