Pakistani regime used massive force to disrupt peaceful Pashtun protests and demonstrations (Aman Pasoon) held across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday. The police acting on direct instructions of GHQ Rawalpindi lathi charged local PTM (Pashtun Tahafuz Movement) leaders at Bannu and arrested dozens of protestors. Pashtuns were out on the streets across Pashtunistan to protest against the targeted killing of innocent and unarmed Pashtuns by the Pakistani soldiers. Over the last fortnight there have been reports of killings at Bannu, Bajaur, Tirah Valley and other areas in Waziristan. And all these killings by the Pakistani soldiers have been unprovoked. “These generals and colonels (Pakistan Army officers) want to loot our natural resources. They send their men to steal minerals from Pashtunistan… and when we protest against the loot these soldiers shoot unarmed Pashtuns,” a local PTM leader told News Intervention requesting anonymity.
Pashtunistan has massive reserves of marble, granite, chromite, manganese, nephrite, garnet, quartz and emeralds that is worth billions of dollars. Rawalpindi sends Pakistan Army soldiers to illegally extract these minerals. When local Pashtuns oppose this plunder Rawalpindi announces ‘security operations’ from Waziristan to Bajaur. These unannounced ‘security raids’ are conducted to forcibly displace Pashtuns from their homes and homeland and seize control of their land and resources.
The demonstration on August 1 was against Pakistani regime’s treacherous policies, fake security operations, illegal land encroachments, and the systematic loot of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s natural resources. Despite the intense heat, short notice, and state pressure, hundreds of thousand Pashtuns participated in this protest movement.
Pashtuns demanded that Pakistani regime put an unconditional end to military operations, drone attacks and bombings on the homes of ordinary people. “The killing of innocent Pashtuns, oppression and brutality in military jails, looting of minerals, imposing inhumane curfews, targeted killings, incidents of missing persons must stop immediately,” said the PTM leader. Pashtuns demanded permanent peace, prosperity, employment, and their ownership rights over minerals in Waziristan, along with an end to the economic wars of Punjabi hegemony.