In yet another heinous act of violence, Punjabi Pak Army fired mortar shells into the Shaktoi village in Upper Waziristan’s tehsil Sharkai at 11 a.m. on 9 Nov, killing two innocent children and injuring another. This latest atrocity follows a disturbing pattern of targeted attacks on civilians by the Pakistan Army, reminiscent of the recent shelling in Khyber Terah just a day earlier.
The mortar fire is deliberately aimed at the civilian population. The repeated targeting of children and livestock, raises serious questions about the intentions behind these brutal assaults. In stark contrast, the shells never seem to hit the terrorists or Pakistan Army personnel, this shows that these attacks are truly meant to instill fear among the already suffering civilian populace.
The Pakistan Army’s reckless shelling of civilian areas has become a grotesque tactic aimed at intimidating and displacing the local population. This marks yet another chapter in the long history of the military’s violent oppression in regions like Waziristan, where Pak Army have long been perpetrating atrocities to silence Pashtuns and to facilitate their mass eviction and seize control of the mineral-rich lands predominantly owned by Pashtuns.