In another display of Pak Army’s authoritarian grip over its tribal regions, police in Orakzai district registered an FIR against Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Manzoor Pashteen, along with other organizers of a peaceful gathering aimed at rallying support for the upcoming Pashtun Grand Jirga on October 11. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police, operating in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), have once again shown themselves to be mere tools of the unaccountable Pak Army establishment, acting on orders to silence any dissent in the region.
Manzoor Pashteen has emerged as a leader the Paki establishment never anticipated, one who has become a powerful voice for the long-suffering Pashtun community. His calls for Pashtun unity have resonated across KP, where the population has endured decades of exploitation and atrocities at the hands of the Punjabi-Pak military.
Despite the peaceful nature of their protests, Pashtun activists continue to face persecution. Even transport workers in KP have been arrested in recent days. The arrests are part of a larger effort to stifle the growing Pashtun movement.
Pashtuns in KP have reached their breaking point. Tired of the Punjabi elite’s disregard for their lives and livelihoods, the Pashtun people are taking matters into their own hands, demanding accountability for decades of exploitation. The PTM’s national gathering on October 11 will serve as a crucial platform to raise awareness about the human rights violations they have endured and to call for international attention to their plight.
Since the occupation of the Khyber region in 1947, the Punjabi Pak Army has waged a campaign of relentless violence against the Pashtun people. Under the guise of counter-terrorism operations, the Army has engaged in indiscriminate shelling of villages, extrajudicial killings, abductions, and staged encounters, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. The military has used the region as a battleground for its own interests, treating its inhabitants as collateral damage.