Manzoor Pashteen

Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen (Pashto: منظور احمد پښتين) is a human rights activist from South Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.[2]

Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen
Manzoor Pastheen at a PTM rally
Born (1994-10-25) October 25, 1994[1]
Shahur, Sarwakai, South Waziristan, Pakistan
NationalityPakistani
Alma materGomal University
OccupationHuman rights activist
MovementPashtun Tahafuz Movement
Children2
Parent(s)
  • Abdul Wadud Mahsud (father)

He is the chairman of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement ("Pashtun Protection Movement"), a social movement based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.[3][4] From 11 to 14 March 2022, he was part of the Pashtun National Jirga, which was held in Bannu to discuss the critical issues faced by the Pashtuns in Pakistan and Afghanistan.[5]

Early life and education

Pashteen was born in 1994 in Shahur (or Shaheer), Mawle Khan Sarai, a small village near the town of Sarwakai in South Waziristan, Pakistan. The eldest of eight siblings, Pashteen belongs to the Shamankhel Mahsud tribe of the Pashtuns. His father, Abdul Wadud Mahsud, is a primary school teacher at his village.[6]

Pashteen received his early education at his village's school in South Waziristan. In 2005, because of military offensives by the Pakistan Armed Forces against militants, Pashteen and his family were flee to Waziristan and temporarily settle in IDP camps in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[7] The family fled their home in Waziristan for the second time in 2007, and returned in 2008, but fled again in 2008 due to Operation Zalzala. In 2009, because of Operation Rah-e-Nijat, he and his family were forced to flee Waziristan for the fourth time. Pashteen completed his secondary education at Army Public School in Bannu and higher secondary education in Karak. His father was determined to ensure his education. "Only I know", Pashteen said, "my father borrowed money for my schooling and only I know how much we have suffered".[7] Pashteen received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 2016 at Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan.[6] He and his family returned to Waziristan in 2016. They were humiliated at Pakistan Army checkpoints, and found that their books had been plundered, their house ruined, and landmines scattered over their lands.[8]

Pashtun Tahafuz Movement
See also: Pashtun Tahafuz Movement

He was an unknown character during Taliban hold but somehow raised to prominence after Army managed to kick out Taliban and destroyed homes, markets and even human lives in tribal areas. In May 2014, during his studies at Gomal University, Pashteen founded the "Mahsud Tahafuz Movement",[9] a social movement mainly focused on removing landmines from Waziristan (especially Mahsud land).

The secular Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (Movement for the Protection of Pashtuns, PTM) campaigns against war, blaming both Islamists and the Pakistani military for the destruction. The region has been a war zone since the 1980s, since the Cold War between the Soviet Union and United States and the following conflict between western and Islamist forces.[10]

On 5 September 2017, Pashteen and his father, along with a couple of other human rights activists, Jamal Malyar and Shah Faisal Ghazi, were detained by the security forces of Pakistan at Barwand check post in Tiarza Tehsil, South Waziristan.[11] Pashteen was beaten up under the allegation that his human rights campaign damaged military morale. “I said, you are building your morale by killing innocent children and then calling us terrorists,” Pashteen later told. As a result of the social media campaign for them by their supporters, they were released on 6 September by the military.[12]

Pashtun Long March

The PTM rose to prominence after Naqeebullah Mehsud, accused of militant connections, was killed by police in Karachi on 20 January 2018. Human rights groups note that the war on terrorism has served as a pretense for authorities to persecute Pashtuns, with thousands of young Pashtuns like Mehsud killed or abducted by authorities on shaky charges. Due to their dominance of the Taliban, Pashtuns overall have been branded as Islamists or militants.[10]

On January 26, 2018, Pashteen and 20 friends started a protest march from Dera Ismail Khan.[13][14] Many people joined the march along the way, and it reached Peshawar on January 28.[15] Upon reaching Islamabad on February 1, the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement organized a sit-in called "All Pashtun National Jirga". The jirga condemned the fake encounter killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud, a 27-year old Pashtun shopkeeper from Waziristan, perpetrated by the Karachi Police under Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan.[16] Among other demands, the jirga also appealed the government to set up a judicial inquiry for Naqeebullah Mehsud, as well as for all the other Pashtuns murdered extrajudicially in police encounters.[16][17][18] On 13 March 2018 Human Rights Watch seconded the call to investigate Mehsud's killers and called on the Pakistani government to drop criminal cases against Manzoor Pashteen and other protest leaders.[10]

There was grand gathering of PTM in the center of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar on 8 April 2018.[19][20]

Ongoing activism

The PTM demands an end to the extrajudicial killings and disappearances, and what they allege to be the Pakistani military establishment's policy of labeling Taliban groups as either "good" or "bad" depending on whether they support the state of Pakistan. A PTM official accused both state institutions and the 'good Taliban' of threatening the PTM. They also demand removal of landmines from northwestern tribal areas, and that the army cease demolishing houses of Pashtuns accused of militant ties.[10]

In 2019, following the Kharqamar incident, a clash on 26 May between PTM supporters and Pakistani troops that left at least 13 dead, Pashteen spoke to Deutsche Welle in an interview. He accused authorities of firing on demonstrators and suppressing media reports, as well as attempting to rig elections in tribal areas where PTM candidates were likely to win. He denied anti-state and anti-Pakistan sentiment, saying that the PTM is anti-terrorism, while accusing the army of involvement in such activities.[21]

Controversy

Many Afghan activists support the PTM in solidarity for Pashtuns in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.[10] The Afghan government has praised Pashteen's work, with President Ashraf Ghani supporting the march in February, leading some groups to accuse him and the PTM of "foreign backing".[10] In May 2019 Major General Asif Ghafoor, serving as a spokesman for the Pakistani military, alleged that Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies were funding the PTM.[21]

Pashteen has rejected the allegations of being a foreign agent for Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of India or the National Directorate of Security of Afghanistan.[22]

Karachi police had alleged that Mehsud was a terrorist while his family said he was only an “aspiring model”.[23]

Pashteen cap
Main article: Pashteen hat

Pashteen usually wears the Mazari hat at public events and rallies, leading to the hat becoming an iconic symbol of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, and being widely renamed after him as the "Pashteen cap" or "Manzoor cap".[24]

See also

References
  1. "Interview with Manzoor Pashteen (see at 16:35)" (in Urdu). Voice of America Urdu. 2018-06-06. Archived from the original on 2020-11-21. Retrieved 2018-06-11.
  2. Pirzada, Moeed (2018-05-24). "Manzoor Pashteen's PTM: A 'Rights Movement' or a new 'Regional Agenda'? -". Global Village Space. Archived from the original on 2021-03-07. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  3. "Call for Ending Discrimination against Pashtoons". 11 March 2018. Archived from the original on 18 March 2018. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. "PTM Leaders Reject Servitude Role for Pashtuns". 12 March 2018. Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. "Afghan leaders support Pashtun ethnic jirga in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa". Asian News International. March 17, 2022.
  6. "د پښتنو د پاڅون مشر منظور پښتين څوک دی؟". VOA Deewa (in Pashto). 2018-02-13. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  7. "The Mehsud with a movement". The Friday Times. 2018-03-02. Archived from the original on 2021-09-29. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  8. "Caught Between The Military And Militants, Pakistan's Pashtuns Fight For Rights". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 2018-06-15. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  9. "د پښتنو منظور پښتین له کومه راغی؟". BBC Pashto (in Pashto). 2018-03-11. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  10. Shams, Shamil (2018-04-09). "Pashtuns rise up against war, Taliban and Pakistani military". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2021-05-25. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  11. "Three human rights activists released in South Waziristan". Pakistan Today. Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  12. "Meet the 23-year-old activist who could change Pakistan". www.prospectmagazine.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
  13. "A 'Pashtun spring' bloom?". The Express Tribune. 2018-03-17. Archived from the original on 2018-12-02. Retrieved 2018-11-02.
  14. Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen (February 11, 2019). "The Military Says Pashtuns Are Traitors. We Just Want Our Rights". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  15. "Long march against Naqeeb killing reaches Peshawar". Daily Times. 2018-01-29. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  16. "Decades of suffering leave the Pashtun youth angry". The Week. 2018-02-06. Archived from the original on 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  17. "In Pakistan, Long-Suffering Pashtuns Find Their Voice". The New York Times. 2018-02-06. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  18. "Pashtuns End Protest in Islamabad, Vow to Reconvene if Demands Not Met". Voice of America. 2018-02-10. Archived from the original on 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  19. Pakistan's Manzoor Pashteen: 'Pashtuns are fed up with war'. Archived 2018-04-13 at the Wayback Machine dw.com. Retrieved 2018-04-15.
  20. "Public meeting in Mir Ali: Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement demands removal of checkpoints in NWA". The News. 2018-03-03. Archived from the original on 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  21. Shah, Mudassar; Jillani, Shahzeb (2019-06-05). "Pashtun movement leader: 'Pakistani army is afraid of our popularity'". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  22. "Are India & Afghanistan Supporting Manzoor Pashteen?". 28 January 2020. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  23. "Why Manzoor Pashteen, a young Pashtun leader, is a thorn in Pakistani army's side". 19 August 2019. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  24. Alikozai, Hasib Danish (6 April 2018). "Hats Proliferate as Symbol of Pashtun Protest Movement". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 6 April 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
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