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PSM leader says there are at least 32, 000 extra-judicially missing Pushtuns
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Says Pushtun struggle within Constitutional boundaries
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Says no hospital in FATA for landmine victims
LAHORE: Manzoor Pashteen, the leader of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PSM), on Tuesday, lamented the racial profiling of Pashtuns by the state authorities and said the blatant profiling has escalated the victimisation of the community.
Pashteen was speaking at an event organised by the Pashtun students of Lahore in Garden Town. He was welcomed by the passionate students who showered him with petals amid chants of Laal Salaam and slogans seeking autonomy for Pashtuns and an end to the state brutality.
Speaking on the use of racial profiling to suppress the Pashtun community, Pashteen said the films and media of the country propagates an image that portrays them as terrorists. This profiling has turned Pashtuns into an easy target for the military, paramilitary and every other law enforcement agency who pick them up without any thoughts about repercussions.
In addition, the mainstream media has also strengthened this notion. Recalling an incident, he said: “Few years back, there was aerial bombardment of a house in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in which nine people of a family were killed, including two infants; however, the media reported the next day that a dozen terrorists had been killed in a successful operation.
“We are being defamed by the mainstream media; the children who couldn’t even speak are being labelled in the textbooks as terrorists,” Pashteen lamented.
Due to the state of fear in the region, the people couldn’t even give a hint about the identities of their executioners as at least 1,400 tribal leaders were killed for pointing fingers at them, Pashteen said as he called out the ‘dubious’ role of the state in the region.
He addressed the audience, mainly consisting of Pashtun students, saying that everyone sitting here has a relative who was killed just because they demanded peace in their respective areas.
There are at least 32, 000 extra-judicially missing persons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), particularly FATA, Pashteen said. The families of these people are going through a living hell of chaos and uncertainty, as they can’t even know if their sons are dead or alive. Death, though tragic, gives one solace, which is not the case in the enforced disappearances, he said.
“Missing persons”—these are only a few words, but it encompasses thousands of lives and the tears of waiting mothers, Pashteen said.
Sharing a story of a father, whose son, 14-year-old Deen Muhammad, had gone missing at least eight years ago at a check post in the region, Pashteen said the broken father still keeps his cell phone with him all the time so that he would be there if his son calls him someday. Despite his abject poverty, he used his meagre resources to shift to Dera Ismail Khan (DIK) just to avail cellular services that were otherwise entirely blocked in FATA.
The youthful Pashtun movement led by Pashteen has rekindled hope among grieving mothers and fathers of the region. Speaking on the topic, Pashteen told the audience that after the mother of the missing child was told that this emerging movement may bring Deen back, she calls them up daily and asks: “When will Muhammad Deen return? Where is he?”
“It is an absurd fight between the Taliban and the state, which only targets civilians,” Pashteen stated.
He also said that the people who voice support for peace in the region are being killed by ‘unknown forces’.
“When we protest for peace and demand our basic human rights, we are being termed as the agents of RAW and NDS,” he said, adding that it was difficult to comprehend as to how peaceful demands for rights can be termed ‘anti-state’. “Our struggle lies within the domain of the Constitution, whereas it is the other side that acts extra-constitutionally.”
He said that it is difficult to empathise with the victims of terrorism in FATA by the people living in Lahore and elsewhere, who have not suffered the horrors of decades-old wars like their brethren living in the north-western region of the country. The area, that was once a paradise with its scenic bazaars, is now in a state of shambles.
LANDMINES:
Landmines that have killed hundreds since the military operations in FATA have also become a bane for the people there. In the post-operation era, if any official or officer dies in a landmine blast, the retribution, sometimes in the form of torture, is clear for all to see.
He said: “I have proofs of these incidents,” as he challenged the authorities to counter his claims.
FATA is in ruins, people can’t return to the area because of landmines and check posts that plague the region, as one brings death while the other humiliation, he said.
The only people who now live in FATA are very poor who cannot afford to rent a house outside FATA. And these are the people, who often get killed in these blasts. And to rub salt into their wounds, the government hasn’t even established a single hospital in the area. One hospital that is in FATA is only for show and houses non-medical officials. FATA people have to go to hospitals in Peshawar, DI Khan, Tank and that too by securing loans.
Manzoor Pashteen, a down-to-earth school teacher in his humble attire, staged his first protest in 2014 and has risen to fame in the aftermath of the Pashtun sit-in Islamabad. He humanises Pushtuns, who have been dehumanised by a propaganda campaign being run in the mainstream media for years. “We need to prove our humanity to gain the compassion of people,” as he called out people for their apathy towards the Pushtuns in comparison with the protests pertaining to Myanmar.
Pashteen says if the state keeps on acting with impunity, another vacuum might be created which might blow things out of proportion. “If pressure is implied to silence us, it can beget the same.” He, however, ended his speech with a lesson to the youth, saying peace and justice can only be sustained through love, harmony, non-violence and eradication of differences through dialogue and understanding.
