Khyber leaders have announced that a Pashtun National Jirga will convene on October 11 in Khyber district, a region that has long been battered by Punjabi Pak military operations under the guise of counterterrorism. This gathering is not just a customary assembly of elders—a traditional Jirga rooted in the Pashtoonwali code—but a critical response to the relentless suffering imposed on the Pashtun people by Pakistan military establishment.
The Pashtuns have endured unspeakable hardships during successive military operations, the most recent being Azm-e-Istehkam, which turned Pashtun territories into war zones. The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has consistently demanded the removal of landmines from these areas, a grim legacy of the military’s heavy-handed tactics. PTM leaders have condemned the Punjabi Pak military, for systematically terrorizing Pashtun lands through extrajudicial killings in staged encounters and the enforced disappearances of countless individuals.
The military’s brutal repression, marked by abductions and the unlawful imprisonment of Pashtun activists at undisclosed locations, has created a climate of fear. Many PTM activists have been murdered, their deaths still awaiting justice, as the military continues its oppressive campaign with impunity.
This Jirga aims to confront these atrocities head-on, as the Pashtun people unite to demand an end to the military’s reign of terror and the restoration of peace and dignity in their homeland.