In a tragic incident near the Afghan border in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Tirah Maidan, four innocent Pashtuns, including two children, lost their lives in a mortar shelling by Pak Army.
The area is under the heavy watch of Pakistan Amry as it shares borders with Afghanistan. Pashtun community members maintain that mortar shelling in the area was responsible for the fatalities. However, Pakistan to suppress the reality have been propogating that the killings were the result of landmine explosion, when the deceased went their searching mushrooms.
Additiinally, Pakistan has also downplayed the number of fatalities claiming them two. On the contrary, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has released the picture of 4 deceased, including children.
Notably, Pakistan’s relation with Afghan Taliban have soured in recent times, which was evident by the abrupt deportation of Afghan migrants, sealing border and imposing one document regime. Amidst the escalating tensions, the primary concern for Pak Army is the same ethnicity of Afghan and Pashtuns who live on the either side of the border. Due to this, Pak Army has aggravated the scrutiny at the border area with fierce actions against Pashtuns, in a bid to deter them.
Pakistan has employed this tactic without address its ramifications for the larger Pashtun population. Consequently, innocent people are dying. Not less than a week ago, three children lost their lives after a landmine detonated in South Waziristan.