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Manzoor Pashteen

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Manzoor Pashteen
منظور پښتين
Pashteen at a PTM rally
Born (1994-10-25) October 25, 1994 (age 30)[1]
Shahur, Serwekai Tehsil, South Waziristan, Pakistan
Alma materGomal University
OccupationHuman rights activist
MovementPashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM)
Children2
FatherAbdul Wadud Mahsud
RelativesAli Khan Masood (great-uncle)[2]

Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen (Pashto: منظور احمد پښتين; Urdu: منظور احمد پشتین) is a Pashtun human rights activist against enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and other human rights abuses against Pashtun population in Pakistan. Pashteen leads the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement ("Pashtun Protection Movement", PTM),[3] a social movement focused on advocacy of rights of Pashtuns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.[4][5][6] From 11 to 14 October 2024, he was part of the Pashtun National Jirga, held in Khyber District to discuss the critical issues faced by the Pashtuns.

Early life and education

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Pashteen was born in 1994 in Shahur (or Shaheer), Mawle Khan Sarai, a small village near the town of Sarwakai in South Waziristan. The eldest of eight siblings, Pashteen belongs to the Shamankhel Mahsud tribe of the Pashtuns. His father, Abdul Wadud Mahsud, is a primary school teacher at his village.[7]

Pashteen received his early education at his village's school in South Waziristan. In 2005, because of military operations by the Pakistan Armed Forces against militants, Pashteen and his family were forced to flee Waziristan to settle in IDP refugee camps in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[8] The family fled from their home in Waziristan for a second time in 2007, returned in 2008, but fled again later that year due to Operation Zalzala. In 2009, because of Operation Rah-e-Nijat, he and his family were forced to flee Waziristan for the fourth time. Pashteen completed his secondary education at Army Public School in Bannu and higher secondary education in Karak. His father was determined to ensure his education. "Only I know", Pashteen said, "my father borrowed money for my schooling and only I know how much we have suffered".[8] Pashteen received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 2016 at the Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan.[7] When he and his family returned to Waziristan in 2016, they found that their books had been looted, their home ruined, and landmines were scattered over their lands.[9]

Pashtun Tahafuz Movement

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See also: Pashtun Tahafuz Movement

In May 2014, during his studies at the Gomal University, Pashteen founded the "Mahsud Tahafuz Movement",[10] a social movement mainly focused on removing landmines from Waziristan (especially Mahsud land).

The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (Movement for the Protection of Pashtuns, PTM) campaigns against war, blaming both Islamist militants and the Pakistani military for the destruction. The region 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.[11]

The Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan in its notification dated 06 October 2024 added the PTM into list of proscribed organizations citing public order and security in the country.[12][13]

Pashtun Long March

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The PTM gained prominence after Naqeebullah Mehsud, accused of militant connections, was killed by police in Karachi on January 20, 2018. Human rights groups note that the war on terrorism has served as a pretense for authorities to persecute Pashtuns, with thousands of young Pashtuns like Mehsud killed or abducted by authorities on shaky charges. Due to their dominance of the Taliban, Pashtuns overall have been branded as Islamists or militants.[11]

On January 26, 2018, Pashteen and his 20 companions began a protest march from Dera Ismail Khan.[14][15] Many people joined the march along the way, and it reached Peshawar on January 28.[16] Upon reaching Islamabad on February 1, the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement organized a sit-in called "All Pashtun National Jirga". The jirga condemned the fake encounter killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud, a 27-year old Pashtun shopkeeper from Waziristan, perpetrated by the Karachi Police under Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan.[17] Among other demands, the jirga also appealed the government to set up a judicial inquiry for Naqeebullah Mehsud, as well as for all the other Pashtuns murdered extrajudicially in police encounters.[17][18][19] On 13 March 2018 Human Rights Watch seconded the call to investigate Mehsud's killers and called on the Pakistani government to drop criminal cases against Manzoor Pashteen and other protest leaders.[11]

There was grand gathering of PTM in the center of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar on 8 April 2018.[20][21]

Ongoing activism

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The PTM demands an end to the extrajudicial killings and disappearances, and what they allege to be the Pakistani military establishment's policy of labeling Taliban groups as either "good" or "bad" depending on whether they support the state of Pakistan. A PTM official accused both state institutions and the 'good Taliban' of threatening the PTM. They also demand removal of landmines from northwestern tribal areas, and that the army cease demolishing houses of Pashtuns accused of militant ties.[11]

In 2019, following the Kharqamar incident, a clash on 26 May between PTM supporters and Pakistani troops that left at least 13 dead, Pashteen spoke to Deutsche Welle in an interview. He accused authorities of firing on demonstrators and suppressing media reports, as well as attempting to rig elections in tribal areas where PTM candidates were likely to win. He denied anti-state and anti-Pakistan sentiment, saying that the PTM is anti-terrorism, while accusing the army of involvement in such activities.[22]

Manzoor Pashteen, and the PTM, have been vocal about civilian deaths resulting from Pakistan's "war on terror" in which many innocent civilians lost their lives in Northwestern Pakistan during air campaigns. A number of cases highlighted by the PTM and investigated independently by the BBC came to light in a 2019 report titled "Uncovering Pakistan's secret human rights abuses". Reacting to the report, Pashteen told the BBC, "It has taken us almost 15 years of suffering and humiliation to gather courage to speak up, and to spread awareness about how the military trampled our constitutional rights through both direct action and a policy of support for the militants."[23][24]

Ahead of the jirga to held in October 2024 that attracted a large number of leaders, according to Manzoor Pashteen, his rights movement’s teams were subjected to physical harassment by the Pakistan state authorities during surveys in the tribal region. He said, "Jirga is an integral part of our [Pashtun] culture and nobody will be allowed to prevent us from holding them for the resolution of our grievances.”[25]

Detentions

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On 5 September 2017, Pashteen and his father, along with two other human rights activists, Jamal Malyar and Shah Faisal Ghazi, were detained by Pakistani security forces at Barwand check post in Tiarza Tehsil, South Waziristan.[26] Pashteen was beaten up under the allegation that his human rights campaign damaged military morale. “I said, you are building your morale by killing innocent children and then calling us terrorists,” Pashteen later told. As a result of the social media campaign for them by their supporters, they were released on 6 September by the military.[27]

On 27 January 2020, Pashteen was arrested by the police in Peshawar on allegations of sedition. The arrest was criticized by then Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.[28] Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Pakistani authorities to release Pashteen and drop the charges against him, saying "using criminal laws to chill free expression and political opposition has no place in a democracy."[29] During a protest against the arrest outside the National Press Club in Islamabad on 28 January, PTM leader and member of the National Assembly Mohsin Dawar, Ismat Shahjahan and Ammar Rashid of the Awami Workers Party (AWP), and 26 other protesters were arrested.[30][31] Ismat Shahjahan and Mohsin Dawar were released on 29 January but Ammar Rashid and 22 others were sent to jail on sedition charges; all charges were dropped against them on 17 February.[32][31] On 2 February, at least 43 activists were briefly arrested from other protests held in solidarity with Pashteen in Dera Ismail Khan, Karachi and Faisalabad.[33] After almost a month in jail, Pashteen was released on 25 February and was received by a large number of PTM workers.[34]

On 28 March 2021, the police arrested Pashteen in Kohat and Mohsin Dawar in Karak to prevent both of them from travelling to Bannu to join and lead the Janikhel protest march. The protest was called off on 29 March after an agreement was signed between the protesters and Mahmood Khan, the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, following which Pashteen and Dawar were released.[35]

On December 4, 2023, Pashteen was arrested under mysterious circumstances. He was enroute to Turbat, where Baloch activists were protesting state-inflicted injustices when, according to eyewitnesses, Pakistani forces fired at his vehicle, injuring a passerby. He was then arrested. On December 6, his supporters assembled outside the White House, advocating for his safe release.[36] On December 7, an Islamabad court granted a seven-day remand for Pashteen, arrested in Chaman on Monday. His lawyer claimed Pashteen was "abducted" from Balochistan and produced in court three days later, citing an alleged car attack. Despite opposition, the court ordered police to present Pashteen again on December 14.[37]

Controversy

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Many Afghan activists support the PTM in solidarity for Pashtuns in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.[11] The Afghan government has praised Pashteen's work, with President Ashraf Ghani supporting the march in February, leading some groups to accuse him and the PTM of "foreign backing".[11] In May 2019 Major General Asif Ghafoor, serving as a spokesman for the Pakistani military, alleged that Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies were funding the PTM.[22]

Pashteen has rejected the allegations of being a foreign agent for Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of India or the National Directorate of Security of Afghanistan.[38] In another instance, following the Asma Jahangir Conference held in Lahore, Manzoor Pashteen was booked under terrorism charges by Pakistani authorities for provoking resistance against the armed forces and the state institutions during his speech. [39][40]

During the recent organization of Pashtun National Court by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Khyber District on 12 October 2024,[41] the internationally proscribed terrorist organization Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),[42] in an unprecedented move, announced a unilateral temporary ceasefire in the region in anticipation of the event, which gave rise to speculations regarding emerging nexus between proscribed terrorist organization and PTM leadership.[43][44]

Pashteen cap

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Main article: Pashteen hat

Pashteen usually wears the Pashteen cap at public events and rallies, leading to the originally known "Mazari hat" becoming an iconic symbol of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, and being widely renamed after him as the "Pashteen cap" or "Manzoor cap".[45]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Interview with Manzoor Pashteen (see at 16:35)" (in Urdu). Voice of America Urdu. 2018-06-06. Archived from the original on 2020-11-21. Retrieved 2018-06-11.
  2. ^ "علي خان مسود: له زندانه تر المانه". مشال راډيو (in Pashto). 25 September 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  3. ^ Pirzada, Moeed (2018-05-24). "Manzoor Pashteen's PTM: A 'Rights Movement' or a new 'Regional Agenda'? -". Global Village Space. Archived from the original on 2021-03-07. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  4. ^ "Call for Ending Discrimination against Pashtoons". 11 March 2018. Archived from the original on 18 March 2018.
  5. ^ "PTM Leaders Reject Servitude Role for Pashtuns". 12 March 2018. Archived from the original on 17 March 2018.
  6. ^ Shinwari, Ibrahim (2024-10-13). "Manzoor Pashteen vows to continue fighting for Pakhtun rights". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2024-10-17.
  7. ^ a b "د پښتنو د پاڅون مشر منظور پښتين څوک دی؟". VOA Deewa (in Pashto). 2018-02-13. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  8. ^ a b "The Mehsud with a movement". The Friday Times. 2018-03-02. Archived from the original on 2021-09-29. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  9. ^ "Caught Between The Military And Militants, Pakistan's Pashtuns Fight For Rights". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 2018-06-15. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  10. ^ "د پښتنو منظور پښتین له کومه راغی؟". BBC Pashto (in Pashto). 2018-03-11. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Shams, Shamil (2018-04-09). "Pashtuns rise up against war, Taliban and Pakistani military". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2021-05-25. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  12. ^ Report, Dawn (2024-10-07). "Govt imposes ban on Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  13. ^ Correspondent, Our (2024-10-12). "PTM ban to remain in force, says governor". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2024-10-21. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  14. ^ "A 'Pashtun spring' bloom?". The Express Tribune. 2018-03-17. Archived from the original on 2018-12-02. Retrieved 2018-11-02.
  15. ^ Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen (February 11, 2019). "The Military Says Pashtuns Are Traitors. We Just Want Our Rights". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  16. ^ "Long march against Naqeeb killing reaches Peshawar". Daily Times. 2018-01-29. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  17. ^ a b "Decades of suffering leave the Pashtun youth angry". The Week. 2018-02-06. Archived from the original on 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  18. ^ "In Pakistan, Long-Suffering Pashtuns Find Their Voice". The New York Times. 2018-02-06. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  19. ^ "Pashtuns End Protest in Islamabad, Vow to Reconvene if Demands Not Met". Voice of America. 2018-02-10. Archived from the original on 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  20. ^ Pakistan's Manzoor Pashteen: 'Pashtuns are fed up with war'. Archived 2018-04-13 at the Wayback Machine dw.com. Retrieved 2018-04-15.
  21. ^ "Public meeting in Mir Ali: Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement demands removal of checkpoints in NWA". The News. 2018-03-03. Archived from the original on 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  22. ^ a b Shah, Mudassar; Jillani, Shahzeb (2019-06-05). "Pashtun movement leader: 'Pakistani army is afraid of our popularity'". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  23. ^ "Manzoor Pashteen: Activist who dared to challenge Pakistan army held". 2020-01-27. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  24. ^ "Uncovering Pakistan's secret human rights abuses". 2019-06-01. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  25. ^ Shinwari, Ibrahim (2024-10-13). "Manzoor Pashteen vows to continue fighting for Pakhtun rights". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  26. ^ "Three human rights activists released in South Waziristan". Pakistan Today. Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  27. ^ "Meet the 23-year-old activist who could change Pakistan". www.prospectmagazine.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
  28. ^ "Pakistani rights activist arrested on charges of sedition, protests threatened". Reuters. January 27, 2020.
  29. ^ "Pashtun Rights Leader In Pakistan Released On Bail". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. February 15, 2020.
  30. ^ Hashim, Asad. "Pakistani police detain MP, activists at Pashtun rights rally". Al Jazeera.
  31. ^ a b "PTM's Dawar released; 23 others sent to Adiala Jail". Dawn. 2020-01-29. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  32. ^ Naseer, Tahir (17 February 2020). "'This is Pakistan, not India,' says IHC chief justice after cases against AWP, PTM protesters dropped". DAWN.COM. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  33. ^ "Pakistan court grants bail to activists, drops sedition charges". Al Jazeera.
  34. ^ "PTM's Manzoor Pashteen released from jail". Dawn. February 25, 2020.
  35. ^ Hussain, Ali (March 30, 2021). "Janikhel tribe calls off sit-in". Brecorder.
  36. ^ "Anti-War Advocate Accused of Terrorism in Pakistan, Inspiring Global Protests". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  37. ^ Staff Report (December 7, 2023). "PTM's Manzoor Pashteen handed over to police on seven-day physical remand". Pakistan Today.
  38. ^ "Are India & Afghanistan Supporting Manzoor Pashteen?". 28 January 2020. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  39. ^ Desk, News (2022-10-23). "Anti-army speech: Manzoor Pashteen booked under terror charges". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2024-10-18. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  40. ^ "'ریاستی اداروں کے خلاف تقریر:' منظور پشتین پر مقدمہ". Independent Urdu (in Urdu). 2022-10-24. Retrieved 2024-10-18.
  41. ^ Shinwari, Ibrahim (2024-10-12). "Thousands turn up as PTM jirga begins in Jamrud". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  42. ^ "TEHRIK-E TALIBAN PAKISTAN (TTP) | Security Council". main.un.org. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  43. ^ TDI (2024-10-19). "TTP and PTM: Threats to Pashtun Society". The Diplomatic Insight. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  44. ^ Desk, BR Web (2024-10-08). "Ban on PTM based on concrete evidence, says Tarar". Brecorder. Retrieved 2024-10-21. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  45. ^ Alikozai, Hasib Danish (6 April 2018). "Hats Proliferate as Symbol of Pashtun Protest Movement". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 6 April 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
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