Pashteen alleged to VOA in a telephone interview from Islamabad that Pakistan's military has been trying to sow confusion among people about PTM.
"These are baseless accusations that we receive funding from foreign intelligence agencies. They cannot produce a single evidence," Pashteen said. "There is an English saying that if you cannot convince them, confuse them. That's exactly what the military has been doing against us.
"They [military] train militants here and then the militants carry out attacks in my country and other countries of the world. With PTM's emergence as a movement, the military can no longer operate with impunity to do that and their so-called business has been faced with difficulties," he added.
Military's warning
Last Monday, Major General Asif Ghafoor, director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) and the spokesperson for the military, accused the PTM of receiving funds from Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) and India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and advancing their agendas inside Pakistan.
"On the PTM website, they have got a number that states the amount of funds they have collected from Pashtuns around the world. But tell us how much money did you get from the NDS [Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security] to run your campaign? How much money did RAW [India's Research and Analysis Wing] give you for the first dharna [sit-in protest] in Islamabad?" Ghafoor asked."We want to do everything for the people [of tribal areas], but those who are playing in the hands of people, their time is up. Their time is up," Ghafoor added, implying that PTM members are serving as foreign agents.
But Pashteen charges that it's the military that gets funding from foreign countries, not his movement.
"They [military] want to end PTM so that they could continue nurturing militancy and then attack them here and there and receive funding for it from the international community," Pashteen said.
"It was not us. It was them who have received about $33 billion from foreigners," he added.
Pakistan has received more than $ 33 billion in U.S assistance since 2002 including more than $14 billion in Coalition Support Fund (CSF) which is a U.S. Defense Department program for reimbursing allies that incur costs while supporting the U.S-led counter-insurgency and counter-terror operations in the region.
'Anti-state forces'
Ghafoor urged Pakistan's Pasthun population not to be provoked by what he called "anti-state forces," which he used to describe Pashteen and his movement.
"Pakistan armed forces will not rest until your issues are resolved. We hope that you will not pay attention to their [PTM] rhetoric and instead stop these anti-state forces," Ghafoor said.But Pashteen maintains that he respects the country's constitution and that the military has a tendency to label anyone who fights for constitutional rights as "anti-state forces.""Whomever criticizes them [military] is anti-state. Those who demand respect to constitution are labeled as anti-state. Those who demand a republic are called traitors and anti-state," Pashteen said."You tell me, isn't it constitutional to demand due process for missing persons? We simply say that if someone committed a crime, punish him, and if someone is innocent, release him. How is that unconstitutional?" he asked.
Grievances
Pashtuns, who are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan but a minority in Pakistan, have felt neglected and targeted in Pakistan for some time. That long-simmering anger boiled over in January 2018 with the death of Naqeebullah Mehsud, a 27-year-old shopkeeper-turned-model, at police hands in Karachi.
https://www.voanews.com/a/pashteen-ptm-hurt-military-s-terror-sponsoring-industry/4906721.html
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