Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a Pakistani civil rights group, has been banned by the Pakistani government. “The ban under the country’s anti-terrorism law allowed authorities to seal PTM offices, assets and bank accounts; seize literature; and prohibit public advocacy such as media statements or speeches,” according to Voice Of America. Pashtuns, also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an eastern Iranic ethnic group located in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and a few communities in Iran. Most Pathans live in the northwestern state of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The Pakistani government has designated the PTM as a group “that poses a threat to the peace and security of the country,” Asia Times, an English-language digital platform for Asian news from Hong Kong reports. According to Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, an international news organization from the Czech Republic, “Rights groups say the ban is aimed at silencing the PTM, which has accused the government and the powerful military of committing human rights abuses against civilians in northwestern Pakistan, a militant stronghold.”
PTM is a movement founded in 2014 for the purposes of human rights, truth commission to investigate extrajudicial murder, end enforced disappearances and stop security checkpoint humiliations of Pathan families, according to the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict. Other grievances Pashtuns have experienced include being discriminated against by Pakistan’s government. According to Human Rights Watch, “Provincial governments have added to the tensions. In February, the Punjab government issued a notification ‘asking the population to keep an eye on suspicious individuals who look like Pashtuns or are from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and to report any suspicious activity by them.’” PTM has claimed that 32,000 Pashtuns have gone missing in the Pashtun regions in Pakistan due to past military offenses in the last decade, according to The New Humanitarian, an independent nonprofit newsroom founded in Nairobi, Kenya.
In the capital city of Peshawar, there have been clashes between PTM supporters and police. “At least three people were killed in clashes Wednesday between Pakistani police and supporters of a rights group advocating for the Pashtun ethnic minority, angered by a government ban imposed on the organization this week, local officials said,” according to the Associated Press. With the recent aggression, PTM leaders plan “to go ahead with its Loya Jirga [Great Council] grand assembly on October 11th to discuss peace and security in northwestern Pakistan despite recent violence, including the deaths of three of its members,” RFE/RL reports.
Overall, this civil rights movement is advocating for rights and better treatment of Pathans in Pakistan. They have faced even more discrimination due to the Pakistan’s ban however, they are not giving up.
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