Pashtun leader Manzoor Pashteen survived an assassination attempt Wednesday when a Pakistan Army soldier in civilian clothes fired several shots at his car in Zhob, occupied Balochistan. Manzoor Pashteen heads the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) and was on his way to Qila Saifullah district when he was attacked at Zhob.
PTM’s Balochistan coordinator Noor Bacha, who was travelling along with Manzoor Pashteen, has been hit and is currently admitted in a hospital at Zhob.
Manzoor Pashteen was in occupied Balochistan to attend the third martyrdom anniversary of PTM leader Arman Loni, who died when Pakistani regime lathi-charged protesting Pashtuns on February 2, 2019. The Punjabi Pakistani regime and generals at GHQ Rawalpindi get jittery whenever Pashtuns protest for their rights and demands. The assassination attempt on Manzoor Pashteen is a step to muzzle the Pashtun voice.
Eyewitnesses say that Manzoor Pashteen and other Pashtun leaders were detained by the Frontier Corps (FC) and were being taken to an undisclosed location. However as the news of Manzoor Pashteen’s arrest spread like wild fire a large number of Pashtun and Baloch activists started protests for his safe release.
A jittery Paki regime was then forced to release Manzoor Pashteen and at the time of writing this news report, Pashteen was back with hundreds of Pashtun and Baloch supporters and were protesting at the Malik Hassan petrol pump near Zhob.