Pakistan bans leading Pashtun rights crew mentioning safety issues | Human Rights Information


Executive says actions of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Motion have been ‘prejudicial’ to the rustic’s holiday and safety.

Pakistan has prevented the Pashtun Tahaffuz Motion (PTM), or Pashtun Coverage Motion, a leading rights crew, list it as a “proscribed organisation”.

A notification issued by way of the government on Sunday stated the PTM used to be “engaged in certain activities which are prejudicial to the peace and security of the country”.

Pashtuns are a definite ethnic crew with their very own Pashto language, residing most commonly in Pakistan and Afghanistan however divided by way of the colonial-drawn Durand Layout that splits the 2 international locations.

The motion, based in 2014, advocates for the rights of ethnic Pashtuns suffering from Pakistan’s warfare in opposition to the Taliban and its native associate, Pakistan Taliban, identified by way of the acronym TTP.

PTM is understood for its strident complaint of Pakistan’s robust army for its function in alleged enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of rights activists and ethnic leaders.

Supporters of Pashtun Tahaffuz Motion conserve indicators throughout a protest [File: Mohsin Raza/Reuters]

PTM, which isn’t a political birthday party, has at its height pulled tens of hundreds of nation to in large part non violent rallies challenging higher coverage from the circumstance. It stated greater than 200 activists were arrested in fresh days in travel of a jirga, or a council of elders, deliberate for next this while.

Pakistani government have in fresh months tried to curtail dissent – clamping ailing in the street energy of jailed opposition chief and previous Top Minister Imran Khan upcoming he led a flow of complaint in opposition to the robust army and insigt products and services.

On the weekend, the capital used to be on lockdown with access and advance issues banned and cell phone products and services snip as Khan supporters tried to protest. The demonstrations got here weeks upcoming the federal government presented a unutilized protest regulation that limits gatherings.

‘Extreme decision’

The distant Human Rights Fee of Pakistan (HRCP) requested for the withdrawal of the forbid at the PTM.

“HRCP condemns the government’s decision to proscribe the PTM, a rights-based movement that has never resorted to violence and always used the framework of the Constitution to advocate its cause,” it stated in a submit on X.

“This extreme decision was neither transparent nor warranted.”

Pakistan has lengthy grappled with violence within the border boxes akin Afghanistan, with assaults at the get up because the Taliban seized energy in Kabul in 2021.

The rustic is simply days clear of webhosting a number of heads of presidency for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) assembly, a bloc established by way of Russia and China to deepen ties with Central Asian states.



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