Pashtun unrest against military brutalities

Pakistani troops clashed with protesters on Sunday in North Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan, leaving at least three people dead and many more wounded

The violence broke out as several hundred people, led by the Pashtun Protection Movement leaders, and two Parliament members were protesting for the rights of Pakistan’s Pashtuns in the North Waziristan region. They fought with security officials at a military check post.

Pashtun Protection Movement, known as the PTM, which has been crusading since last year against deep atrocities and misconducts against civilians during the military campaign against Islamist militants. The group’s leaders have been arrested at mass rallies and warned by the army to back off their anti-military crusade. This is notable that Pashtuns are a fiercely independent ethnic group that straddles both sides of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. They account for roughly 15 percent of Pakistan’s population, with a majority of the 30 million-strong group living in the northwest and a significant population in the southern port city of Karachi.

The PTM shot to prominence in January last year when it led countrywide protests against the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud, a young man from South Waziristan, by the police.

The group, whose leadership is comprised of young rights activists from the war-torn tribal districts where Pakistan has waged the bulk of its war against the Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its allies, has been campaigning for accountability for alleged rights abuses by the armed forces in the war.

It has three main demands: the clearance of land mines and other unexploded ordnance from the tribal districts; an end to extrajudicial killings in Pakistan's war against armed groups; and accountability for thousands of people who have been subjected to enforced disappearances by the state.

North Waziristan, once a stronghold of the TTP, was cleared by Pakistan's military after a security operation was launched in 2014 to dismantle the group. The PTM's campaign has often brought the group up against Pakistan's powerful military, which has ruled the country for roughly half of its 71-year history and public criticism of which is considered rare for fear of reprisals.