A Pashtun activist has accused Pakistan army of human rights violations under the garb of anti-terror activities in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Arbab Sohrab Saadat Jabarkhail, who hails from Peshawar and is now living in London, lamented that their lives have been destroyed.
“Our houses are getting destroyed every day. Every day our women are getting raped and tortured, which is not acceptable to us. We are not going to stop anymore. We are going to raise our voices. We are going to try for help as much as we can”, Arbab Sohrab was quoted by ANI as saying.
Pashtun oppressed in Pakistan for decades
The Pashtuns in Pakistan have been oppressed and have faced discrimination in the hands of the Pakistani army and the government since decades. They have been regularly targeted by the Pakistan army in the name of counter-terrorism operations against the Taliban and have, without any fault of theirs, sustained irreparable damages in the hands of the Pakistani army and authorities.
Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a social movement for Pashtun human-rights based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan had been initiated against the Pakistani authorities for the rights and justice for Pashtuns.
According to the PTM leaders and other Pashtun leaders residing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 362 Kashmiri civilians may have been killed at the hands of forces in Kashmir in comparison to the demolition of 120,000 houses of Pashtuns during the past two decades, leading to deaths of many Pashtuns in the past 15 years.
Facing decades of repression, the minorities in Pakistan are now taking up the fight against the state of Pakistan for inflicting human rights abuses on them. Recently, one of the prominent leaders of the minority Mohajir community, Nadeem Nusrat had slammed Pakistan government stating that Pakistan had “no moral right to speak on behalf of Kashmiris.”
Nadeem Nusrat had also warned Pakistan that it could face a “potentially existential threat” and advised Islamabad to restructure Pakistan into multiple autonomous states suggesting that it is the only viable solution to save the country.