A community has warned their country’s army to stop meddling in their affairs, they have warned their army to stop the exploitation of their region, they have warned their army to evacuate from their region in 60 days, and yet it is not making headlines. Do you know why? Because that country controls media and even righteous voices.
We are talking about none other than our neighbouring country Pakistan. Yes, and the entire Pashtun community has warned Pakistan to stop their game of terrorism.
Notably, the Pashtun rights organization, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement headed by Manzoor Pashteen, organised a Jirga, basically a community court, to decide on the future recourse for the Pashtuns.
But why are Pashtuns angry with Pakistan? Let’s understand. Pashtuns are a tribal community who live in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Now as the Pakhtunkhwa area is rich in oil, gases, emeralds, and other minerals, Pakistan has since the beginning tried to impose restrictions on the local population so as to control the resources.
This worsened with the advent of the Taliban in the Pakhtunkhwa landscape. After 9/11, the US pressurised Musharraf to expedite jihadists to the US. Due to the US pressure, the Pakistan Army started the “war on terror”, which was in name only. In reality, poor Pashtuns were picked, proclaimed as terrorists, and killed. With the rise in killings, Pakistan Army took Dollars from the US to fight terrorism but exploited that money to harbour real terrorists and propagate terrorism in India.
It also used the ‘war on terror’ to displace Pashtuns from rich mineral lands to other places. Pakistan had it all sorted, until, PTM started galvanising Pashtuns, a feeling that they could have rights too.
PTM highlighted this Dollar War and started a fight against what they call Pakistan’s colonialism in Pakhtunkhwa. But it is not easy to fight the oppressor. Pakistan Army left no stone unturned to pin terrorist tags on PTM. However, PTM’s ardent stand that Pak Army and TTP both have to leave Pashtuns in peace, failed Pak’s every attempt to do so.
At last, Pakistan started its notorious tactics, which it used in Balochistan and Sindh. It started profiling the potential righteous voices to abduct them, kill them, and dump them.
The peaceful resistance shook the Pak Army to its core when in August 2023, PTM held a grand rally in Rawalpindi, the bastion of the Pak Army. PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen clearly warned the Punjabi Pak Army saying, “They (Pakistan) neither believe in Constitution nor Islam, all they believe is indulging in mischievous acts. So listen to Pashtun history and remember what Pashtuns have done to such trouble-makers.”
Later in many protests, Pashtuns ferociously agitated often with slogans like ‘Ye jo dehshatgardi hai, iske peeche wardi hai.’
Pak Army and TTP’s collusion also came to the fore with the killings of Pashtuns in landmine explosions. In April 2024, three children died in a landmine explosion in Waziristan. This was not an isolated incident, there are many such cases where people either lost their lives or their organs to landmines. These frequent killings highlighted that no terrorist infiltrator was ever killed by these landmines, instead, the local population always paid the cost.
What triggered mass movement?
Pashtuns were uniting under an umbrella gradually but they were galvanised after the death of poet and activist Gilaman Wazir. Wazir, also a PTM member was repeatedly stabbed on July 7, 2024, in Islamand and later succumbed to injuries on July 10. While his condition was delicate for three days, he wasn’t allowed to fly to Germany for better treatment.
He was killed by Azad Dawar, a Pak Army proxy along with his 12 accomplices. This proved to be the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back for Pashtuns.
On 11th October, PTM announced the Pashtun National Court to decide the fate of the nation. After the announcement, the Pak Army used every tactic, tried to kill Manzoor Pashteen, attacked the Jirga site in the Khyber district, and banned PTM calling it a terrorist organisation.
سر په اوږو وړمه غرغرو ته د وطن په نوم
زړۀ مې درجار، ساته يې د زلفو غړونديو کېوينم يې، چې خپله چاړۀ ويني په اوبو کې مرگ
سر وخوړ د مرگ وېرې په سترگو د ژونديو کېگورې به چې ورځ به کړي، د خلکو د بخت توره شپه
څو کسه دي گورم يې لمرونه په تنديو کېحق د يو نيمزال تبسم اوس په تا لرو… pic.twitter.com/szmTnDn7Wg
— Pashtun National Jirga (پښتون قامي جرګه/عدالت) (@PashtunNJirga) October 14, 2024
Summary of the decisions of #PashtunNationalCourt11October (part 1):
– The Pakistani military and militant groups with different names and connections with some state agencies get a two months ultimatum to leave Pashtun lands. If this does not happen, then Pashtun National Jirga… pic.twitter.com/ikCgg9DA0d— Pashtun National Jirga (پښتون قامي جرګه/عدالت) (@PashtunNJirga) October 13, 2024
Pak Army also arrested many senior leaders of the Pashtun community, however, Pashtuns defied every pressure and reached the Khyber site in lakhs of numbers.
While addressing Jirga, Manzoor Pashteen, unequivocally condemned the Pakistan Army calling it a terrorist affiliate and occupying force. Jirga asserted that Pakhtunkhwa is illegally controlled by Pakistan under British laws and hence a colony.
The senior leaders in the national court decided on 20 points of demands including, the evacuation of occupying forces, ISI, and TTP from Pakhtunkhwa in 60 days. They also added that if load shedding or power cuts continue, they would dismantle transmission lines that transmit all power to Punjab. Among other demands include support for Internally Displaced Persons (ISP), an end to discrimination against Pashtun students in other parts of Pakistan, and no Pak Army interference and extortion.
However, one of the most crucial demands, apart from the evacuation of the army, is the new social contract. Pashtuns held that the Constitution has colonial laws to govern Pakhtunkhwa and hence, the Jirga declared the existing constitution a failure and demanded a new social contract that reflects the will of the Pashtun people.
This tectonic shift in Pakistan that has the potential to devastate it economically and geographically is undoubtedly the result of its own act of exploitation. Additionally, it has made clear that even with coercive tactics, Pakistan can’t suppress the free voices that are coming out of Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Sindh.
