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'د مشال په وژنه مو خوشاله کور تاله ترغه شو'

د اپرېل ۱۳مه نېټه د مردان په عبدالولي خان پوهنتون کې د بلوه ګرو زده کوونکیو له لوري د یوه زده کوونکي مشال خان د وژنې لومړی تلین لمانځل کېږي. د مشال خان مور سیده بي بي د خپل زوی د وژنې فریاد د مشال راډيو خبریال اسرار عالم مومند ته کوي

'د مشال له وژنې سره مو تعلیم په ټپه ودرېدلو'

د اپرېل ۱۳مه نېټه د مردان په عبدالولي خان پوهنتون کې د بلوه ګرو زده کوونکیو له لوري د یوه زده کوونکي مشال خان د وژنې لومړی تلین لمانځل کېږي. د مشال خان خور ستوریه د خپل ورو د وژنې فریاد د مشال راډيو خبریال اسرار عالم مومند ته کوي

#Pakistan - Media Blackout Of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement

Whereas Manufacturing Consent, co-authored by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, exposes the double standards of the world’s freest media, i.e., American media, no attempt has been made in Pakistan to bring forward the hypocrisy of Pakistan’s media. Failing to broadcast and publish news story of the recently held gathering of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Peshawar reveals the fears, double standards and above all the wrong priorities of our media. However, this editorial intends to do so.

Whether it is agitation of Anjuman Muzara’in or Baloch long march for missing persons or PTM, media turn against its core objective; covering the news and giving voice to the grievances of people. Media fails to perform its role of being a watchdog. The zero coverage policy of media houses, especially that of electronic media to the PTM is alarming. The deliberate attempt to overlook and ignore the movement, the participants, gathered in Peshawar, the tales of agony and torture that the speakers told the audience, and the unfulfilled demands of PTM not at all portray signs of a healthy, vibrant and responsive media. The lack of debate in media over the movement’s goals and demands mean that the media houses are preoccupied with some fears that we all know perfectly well.

The irony is that the people have overthrown their fears and came out of their houses to register a protest against state’s unjust practices while being a part of the war on terror regime. However, the fourth pillar of the state does not perform its most important duty: criticism of state attitude towards Pashtuns. Is it the fear of losing profits that bars all news channels from covering the details of the movement? Or is it right to assume that the houses are following some institutional orders? Probably, both factors are the causes for such a despicable attitude of media towards PTM.

The lack of coverage means that no debate will happen at all to understand the grievances of the citizens. Such a move will further marginalise the already alienated people from the national ambit. Some independent journalists have already expressed their frustration over media’s failure to give airtime to the movement. They see the move as extremely harmful for the cohesiveness of the society. And indeed it is a damaging move. It will create a vacuum. The peaceful movement, which is PTM, will be pushed in a direction that will not benefit the state at all.

Afghan-Pakistani Cross-Border Terrorism Cuts Both Ways

By Franz J. Marty

Exploring on-the-ground reports of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan presence in Afghanistan.

Activists of Pakistan's civil society groups condemn the Taliban's attack on a military-run school in Peshawar, during a rally in Lahore, Pakistan, (Jan. 16, 2015).

Reports about Afghan Taliban safe havens on Pakistani soil are abundant and such refuges are seen as crucial for the militants’ ability to sustain their insurgency inside Afghanistan. What is often overlooked is that some extremist groups, like the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), do the same, but in reverse – seeking shelter on the Afghan side of the border (which Kabul does not officially recognize) to launch assaults on the Pakistani side.

While Pakistani officials have been making such accusations for years, they – unlike the allegations from Afghan and U.S. officials regarding Afghan insurgents hiding out on Pakistani soil – never really gained much traction or attention.

That these Pakistani assertions are not smoke and mirrors was recently confirmed though. On March 7 a U.S. drone struck a TTP camp in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, close to the Pakistani border. The attack killed at least 20 TTP fighters, among them Abdullah, the son of the movement’s leader, Mullah Fazlullah, as a TTP statement sent to Pakistani media acknowledged.

Prior to that, an Afghan militant, who cooperates with TTP elements and goes by the nom de guerre of Qari Saifullah, stated in an exclusive interview that the later targeted TTP group consisting of Pakistani (many from the Swat valley) and Afghan fighters was residing in the remote Chawgam area in Kunar’s Shigal Wa Sheltan district. He also confirmed that the drone strike took place in the said area and had caused considerable casualties. The group is led by Ustod Fateh, and, before the drone strike, had staged cross-border incursions at least every month or so, in particular into the Pakistani tribal agency of Bajaur, Saifullah added. While such incidents are not always picked up by media, one attack on a Pakistani Army outpost in Bajaur, that was, according to Saifullah, conducted by this group, was reported by Reuters in mid-November 2017.

The presence of a TTP group led by Fateh in Kunar was also separately confirmed by two other sources. One – a local, who until recently served in the Afghan Border Police in Kunar – indicated there are about 200 to 300 TTP fighters in Chawgam. In the whole province of Kunar, there are about 2,000 TTP militants, he alleged. Given that locals often inflate numbers, though, these figures should be taken with a salt of grain.

The second very knowledgeable source, who requested anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter, identified Fateh (which is an alias) as Umer Rehman, the TTP’s military commander for the Malakand Division (a now-abolished administrative division of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including Swat district) – the exact same position that Saifullah attributed to Fateh, who hails from Swat. The source also confirmed Fateh’s whereabouts in Kunar. The fact that Fateh is a rather obscure mid-level commander lends all the more weight to the detailed identifications and localizations of Fateh by two separate sources.

The same source also provided information that linked Fateh to a suicide bomber, who on February 3 blewhimself up in the Swat valley, claiming the lives of at least 11 Pakistani Army soldiers.

Whether the March 7 U.S. drone strike has crippled or eliminated the said TTP group’s presence in Chawgam could not be determined. But even if that would be the case, this would not be the end of the group’s presence in Kunar. Some time before the strike, considerable numbers of the group in question, among them apparently also Ustod Fateh, relocated to another hideout in the mountains of the neighboring Ghaziabad district, farther away from the border. This was confirmed by a source, who in February visited a militant gathering there.

This said, Pakistani allegations that the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), the Indian intelligence service, nurtures the mentioned TTP group as well as others via the Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), could not be confirmed. Saifullah outright denied any Indian involvement and insisted that the Afghan government likewise does not provide any support to Fateh’s TTP group. However, some local Afghan government officials turn a blind eye to the militants, Saifullah alleged, by, for example, not hindering their crossing into Pakistan. At least one other source however claimed that local Afghan officials do more and support such TTP groups with money and weapons. None of the above could be verified. In general, allegations of involvement of intelligence services should be treated with suspicion, especially in this part of the world which is rife with conspiracy theories.

In any event, the presence of TTP fighters like Fateh’s men is apparently the reason for the sporadic shelling of Afghan soil by the Pakistani Army. Afghan officials denounce such shelling as blatant violations of their country’s sovereignty and insist that thousands of Pakistani “rockets” (probably also referring to mortar shells) are being fired indiscriminately, hitting civilian houses. Pakistan on the other hand seemingly sees this as a necessary retaliation, but the government hardly, if at all, publicly addresses such shelling. Although details of the shelling could not be independently corroborated, the fact that Afghan officials – despite asserting barrages of thousand of rockets during the past six months – only indicate a mere handful of Afghan casualties raises doubts about the Afghan account of the extent of the shelling.

Be that as it may, the above clearly shows that cross-border violent extremism not only threatens Afghanistan, but also Pakistan. However, reciprocal accusations that the other country does not act decisively enough against insurgents on its soil that threaten the other side of the border — as well as the generally tense Afghan-Pakistani relationship — so far has prevented the effective cooperation that would be necessary to counter such cross-border menaces.

In fairness, one could well argue though that neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan, with or without cooperation from the other, would be capable of rooting out every terrorist hide-out in the region. The 2,670 km long Afghan-Pakistani border is not only extensive, but covers extremely remote areas, which are prone to insurgency and have never been effectively governed.

Pakistan's Manzoor Pashteen: 'Pashtuns are fed up with war'

In a DW interview, anti-war activist Manzoor Pashteen says he is being harassed by Pakistan's security agencies for taking up the issue of extrajudicial killings and turning the Pashtun plight into a national discourse.

At the heart of South Asia's never-ending wars, Islamic extremism, militancy and human suffering have been the Pashtuns, who are in a majority in Pakistan's northern parts and most of Afghanistan. Since the 1980s, at least three generations of Pashtuns have paid a heavy price for the conflicts tearing their region apart. First, the Cold War rivalry between the former Soviet Union and the United States turned their territory into a war zone, and then the battle between the West and Islamists made them homeless, destitute and helpless.

Now a secular movement, led by young activist Manzoor Pashteen, has struck a chord with thousands of Pashtuns, who say "enough is enough." The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (Movement for the Protection of Pashtuns, PTM) blames both the Pakistani military and Islamists for the destruction in their region.

Essentially an anti-war campaign, the PTM sprang up as a result of the killing of the 27-year-old Naqeebullah Masood, who was killed by police in the southern city of Karachi on January 20. The authorities claimed Masood had links with militants, a charge his family and civil society activists deny. Rights groups say that thousands of Pashtun youths have been murdered or abducted by security agencies in the past decades on unproven terrorism charges. State authorities use the pretext of war on terrorism to persecute Pashtuns, they say.

Over the years, Pashtuns have been branded as Islamists, or militants, due to the fact that the Taliban are also a Pashtun-dominated outfit, and because the radicalism in the country's northern areas has spiked over the years as a result of decades-long wars.

PTM leader Pashteen doesn't mince his words and has made it clear who he holds responsible for the Pashtun suffering: "We have to identify the place that destroyed us," Pashteen said at a recent rally. "It is GHQ!" he said, referring to the Pakistani military headquarters in Rawalpindi.

In an interview with DW, Pashteen talks about the objectives of his movement, accusations that he is supported by Afghanistan, and decades-long "injustices" to Pashtuns whose region has been used as a "battlefield" by local and foreign powers.

Rights groups say thousands of Pashtun youths have been abducted by security agencies in the past decades

DW: What are the objectives of the PTM, and how are they different from the objectives of other Pashtun parties?

Manzoor Pashteen: Our objectives are clear. We demand that all "missing people" be released. If they have committed any crime, they should be tried in a court of law. Extrajudicial killings of Pasthuns must stop. A judicial commission should be formed to investigate these killings because we think they are pre-planned. Naqeeb Ullah Mehsud, a Pashtun youth who was killed by [senior police official in the southern city of Karachi] Rao Anwar, was falsely labeled as a Taliban militant.

We also demand that the authorities clear mines planted in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) during security operations, paramilitary forces stop harassing Pashtun families on the pretext of search operations and that people should not be humiliated at security check posts in the northwestern areas.

These are our demands. I think other Pashtun parties have not emphasized them.

How have Pakistani authorities responded to your demand of the release of "missing people"?

I have been told by intelligence agencies that I should give up this demand. But I have made it clear to them that even if they have killed all "missing persons," they must let us know. They told me they would accept any other demand except releasing "missing people" and the issue of extrajudicial killings.

You said in a public rally in Peshawar city on Sunday that you would want a trial against Ehsanullah Eshan, the former spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, and Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former military dictator [who ruled the country from 1999 to 2007]. Who would make that happen?

I am only talking about human rights abuses but some people in Pakistan have labeled me a "traitor" and "terrorist." But Ehsanullah Ehsan is the biggest terrorist, and Musharraf is the real traitor who destroyed Pakistan's democratic setup and committed many crimes, including the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, Former Chief Minister of Baluchistan province. Both Ehsan and Musharraf are responsible for the killings of innocent people. Ehsan did it through his terrorist organization and Musharraf committed genocide through unconstitutional military operations that caused destruction in our areas.

[Editor's note: Ehsanullah Ehsan is in the custody of Pakistani authorities]

The issue of "missing persons" and extrajudicial killings is not restricted to FATA. Do you plan to work together with the affected families in other parts of the country to deal more effectively with the matter?

I would be glad to work with everyone. This is a national issue and we should work together to nip it in the bud for once and all.

You say the Pakistani military is responsible for the Pashtun suffering. What is the context of this accusation?

High-ranking Pakistani military officials have said on a number of occasions that they created the mujahideen (jihadists) and used Pashtuns to fight against the former Soviet Union. Since then, FATA has been used by the military as a safe haven and breeding ground for terrorists. Pashtuns have suffered immensely as a result of this.

Can the movement bring together Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns against war?

Our movement is against the human rights violations of the Pashtuns. The movement is constitutional because none of our demands conflicts with the Pakistani constitution.

If Taliban safe havens are eliminated from Pakistan, particularly from FATA, and the Pakistani state discards the "good and bad Taliban" policy, the Pashtuns in Afghanistan will heave a sigh of relief.

Is the PTM facing threat from Pakistani authorities?

Some security officials told me I would be "declared" a "traitor" if I didn't stop my activities. They did exactly the same. They are now running a propaganda campaign against me that I work for Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies. They have also threatened to arrest me on "anti-state activities" charges.

The truth is that they don't have any evidence that I am backed by Afghanistan. I'm just fighting for the fundamental rights of the Pashtun people. I am not afraid because I have the public support. Pashtuns are just fed up with this war and kill-and-dump policy.

The United States and NATO are heavily involved in the Afghan conflict, which obviously has an impact on Pashtuns. What would be your demand from the US and other Western governments regarding your plight?

I urge the US and other Western countries to put an end to this bloody war in Afghanistan. War is not a solution, it is a problem. Peace can never be attained through war.

Do you think your movement will survive in the coming months? And do you plan to contest the 2018 general elections?

We won't compromise and will continue to make demands. We won't abandon this peaceful movement until we achieve our objectives.

Contesting election, however, is not my cup of tea and I am not a politician. Once our objectives are achieved, I will go home and don't make any noise. We just want peace.

Manzoor Pashteen is the leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (Movement for the protection of Pashtuns, PTM).

The interview was conducted by Shah Meer Baloch. 

‘Tabdeeli’ in Thar evidence of #PPP’s policies: Bilawal Bhutto

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday said that his party believes in progressive, sustainable and inclusive development that empowers local communities and asserted that if “Tabdeeli” had happened anywhere it was in Thar.

He took to Twitter and posted pictures of himself with Thari female truck drivers and engineers.

Talking about the Biosaline Project (BIOSAP), Bilawal said that it has the potential of making Thar’s devastating droughts a thing of the past.

Earlier while addressing a ceremony in Tharparkar, Bilawal launched a tirade against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) saying that if PPP won the upcoming general elections, his party would completely change Karachi.

He maintained that the politicians and media have not done anything for the people of Thar, adding that the people weren’t told about the revolution in Thar.

“The revolution in Thar will lead to a change in entire Sindh,” he added.

Video - Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Complete Speech | 8 April 2018 |