Islamabad-(Mudassar Iqbal)-The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has been banned by Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior, effective immediately, due to alleged involvement in anti-state and illegal activities, as well as spreading chaos in the country ¹. Founded in May 2014 by eight students in Dera Ismail Khan, PTM is a social movement advocating for Pashtun human rights in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
PTM is a social movement for Pashtun human rights based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. It was founded in May 2014 by eight students in Dera Ismail Khan. Manzoor Pashteen, Mohsin Dawar, Ali Wazir, and Gulalai Ismail are the prominent leaders of the movement.
On 1 February 2018, the name of the movement was changed from “Mahsud Tahafuz Movement” (‘Mahsud Protection Movement’) to “Pashtun Tahafuz Movement.”
Pashtun territory has been a war zone since the 1980s, since the Cold War between the Soviet Union and United States and the following conflict between western and Islamist forces. The PTM therefore campaigns against war, blaming both the Taliban and the Pakistani military for the destruction.
The movement was founded as the Mahsud Tahafuz Movement in May 2014 by eight students in Dera Ismail Khan as an initiative for removing landmines from Waziristan and other parts of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, affected by the war in North-West Pakistan.
The movement rose to prominence in January 2018 when it began a justice movement for Naqeebullah Mehsud, who was extrajudicially killed in a fake encounter staged by police officer Rao Anwar in Karachi.
On 26 May 2019, there was a clash between the Pakistan Army and PTM activists who were holding a protest gathering near the Kharqamar check post in North Waziristan.
To stop the demonstration, the security forces killed at least 13 PTM supporters and injured over 25 others. The military said PTM members attacked security forces before any shooting began and injured several soldiers.
PTM is critical of the Pakistan Army and accuses the state of violating the basic human rights of the Pashtuns, but the Pakistan Army has claimed that PTM is backed by foreign powers and their gatherings are “engineered”.
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