In a deeply troubling incident that has sent shockwaves through the Pashtun community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a video has surfaced on social media featuring an elderly Pashtun woman. Moreover, in the aforesaid video the woman recounts a harrowing experience of assault at the hands of Pak Army affiliated abductors, who took away her son.
On February 20, personnel affiliated with Pakistan military forcibly entered the woman’s residence in Khyber district. Subsequently, acting on directives from the Pakistan Army, the abductors carried out the shoddy abduction injuring the elderly Pashtun woman who tried to save her son. The incident not only sheds light on Pakistan’s prolonged use of enforced disappearances as a means to suppress dissenting voices but also their nefariousness which could harm even old women and children . In the video, the elderly woman can be seen bleeding from a scratch, a result of her attempts to protect her son and thwart the abduction.
However, the distressing treatment of the elderly woman has, now, sparked fury among the Pashtun community, prompting them to organize a protest on February 21 at Bara Bazar in Khyber. With a clear understanding of the Pakistan Army’s involvement, protesters have gathered in large numbers, vehemently condemning Military Intelligence (MI), Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), and the local police with impassioned slogans.
This incident underscores a severe breach of law and order, revealing the exploitation of law enforcement machinery as a tool of oppression within an illegal framework. In an environment marked by lawlessness and impunity, even the vulnerable, including the elderly and children, are not spared from the heavy-handed tactics employed by the Pakistani authorities.