Protests continue in Pak’s North Waziristan against attack on PTM chief

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Protests continue against the attack on Pashtun Tahafuz Movement head Manzoor Pashteen in the Mirali Bazaar area of North Waziristan in Pakistan.

Manzoor Pashteen, along with several other PTM leaders, were reportedly injured in Balochistan after the Pakistan army opened fire on Wednesday evening.

The members of PTM were staging a peaceful protest in the Qilla Saifullah districts of Balochistan and the military went with machine guns brutally against peaceful demonstrators, according to reports.

PTM, a rights-based resistance movement in Pakistan, which has been critical of state policies in the tribal belt has ruffled feathers among the Pakistan military with its demand of probe into gross human rights violations conducted by the Army.

It has also been vocal against the government on the issue of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Ever since it was founded in 2018, the PTM has organised regular demonstrations against Pakistan Army’s heavy-handed operations in tribal regions while the military has evidently chosen to crush the movement with its all too familiar tactics.

Last year in September, Balochistan had demanded the withdrawal of Frontier Corps and armed forces from the district after three levies personnel were killed in a roadside explosion.

“5th day of Sit-In in Ziarat along with 3 dead bodies of Levies personnel who were killed by a roadside bomb. Even people had to protest for state personnel killed. The state had exonerated itself from its basic responsibilities. No apathy. #StopSiegeOfZiarat #RemoveFCFromZiarat,” Manzoor Pashteen had tweeted. (ANI)