Pashtun community rubs off terror camps operations in Khyber province

Days after India carried out air strike at Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, members of Pashtun community from this province of Pakistan condemned the terror camps operating from there and in FATA. They voiced their angst during an event held here on the sidelines of the ongoing 40th Session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Held under the aegis of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), the political activists raised the issue of kidnapping and target killings of Pashtun political activists by Pakistani security forces. Fazal-ur-Rehman, a Pashtun human rights activist and member of PTM said, “Give us the opportunity to live with honour. We are against terrorism. We want to be treated with respect. On check posts which the army has created at every nook and corner of FATA and we want truth and reconciliation commission so that we know that hundreds and thousands of people who are killed in the last 17 years in this so-called war on terror.”

He said, “There are innocent people killed by Pakistan military and about 32,000 enforced disappearances and we want to know how these people are disappeared and these people were killed. We want the facts and figures about these things”. At the event, the activists paid tribute to Arman Loni, a Pashtun activist targeted killed by a policeman in Balochistan province.

Rehman said, “Even now Alam Zaib Mehsood who was collecting the data on enforced disappearances he was arrested in Karachi and fake charges of terrorism are labelled against him and he is still in jail. So, we want liberation of Alam Zaib Mehsood. After that, another worker Arman Loni was killed. He was protesting against the Taliban attack on police. So, we are against terrorism. And despite this, the military deputed a police officer and told him to kill this man who was protesting against the Taliban. So, it shows the mindset of the military that they don’t want peace in this region”. Peer Riaz, another Pashtun political activist said they are being targeted in the name of so-called “war on terror”. However, the Pakistan army is harbouring these terror groups in the areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“There are terror groups which are working from Pakistan occupied areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which they are sending and using in Afghanistan, but at the same time they can create these people to send and fight in Kashmir also”. He said these terror camps should be dismantled. “Dismantling is no question, these should be dismantled because these are not working for Pashtuns, Baloch or Sindhis, these are working basically for Punjabis. All these kind of policies are coming from the Punjabi establishment. It is working in their interest. We are in favour of dismantling these terror outfits”, said Peer Riaz. 

(With inputs from agencies.)