Pakistan Pashtuns fear army’s duplicity
Several million Pashtuns living across the Durand Line in Pakistan are deeply worried about the re-emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the grave danger from the proxy war orchestrated by their own army in the region in the coming weeks.
Pashtuns dread a repeat of what happened to them and their homeland when the Taliban had come to power in Kabul with the help of the Pakistan Army. Their land had become a sanctuary for various kinds of terrorist groups patronised by the army. Their traditional lifestyle and community bondings were disrupted by massive incursions by militants and military, forever changing their lives.
But it was what happened after 2001 that devastated them and their homeland. The Pakistan Army launched a military blitzkrieg in the area, pretending to eliminate terrorist groups but in reality killing innocents Pashtun tribesmen and their families and razing to the ground villages and towns in the vast region. Thousands had to flee the army brutality. They were forced to leave their homes, take their women, children and ageing and ailing older members of the family to distant shelters.
As the anger boiled in the community, the young Pashtuns took to the streets to protest against the brutalities unleashed by Pakistan Army against their community. The army responded with abductions, illegal detentions and targeted killings of Pashtun young men and women. With battle-lines drawn, the Pashtuns formed a group, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement to consolidate their fight against the state of Pakistan, specifically the army.
With so much bitterness and mistrust between the Pashtuns and Pakistan Army, there is a mounting fear in the tribal areas, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where majority of the Pashtuns reside, about the second coming of the Taliban and the devious games played by the army in their homeland.
Their biggest worry is the Taliban and its various militant allies, in collaboration with Pakistan Army, taking over parts of their homeland to create terrorist sanctuaries as in the past. This means the next round of the unfinished war would be staged in the Pashtun-dominated areas in Pakistan. Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has launched an information campaign among its members about the possible fallout of the Taliban rule in Kabul.
The PTM leadership believes the Taliban and its allies pose a direct threat to them. These militant groups are likely to turn against them at the behest of the army. The army has so far failed to stem the wave of Pashtun anger and protest. But the Taliban victory in Afghanistan could be used by the army to pit various militant groups against peaceful PTM activists and other Pashtuns in the near future.
The US, UK, China, Iran, Russia and other international players in the region are likely to ignore any targeted campaign against PTM leaders and members. They are more keen to “work with the Taliban“ which means ignore all the malafide actions of the Pakistan Army.
These fears are strengthened by reports that Uighur, Tajik, Uzbek and Chechen militants are already operating in Afghanistan. Several Pak-based terrorist groups like LeT and JeM have been helping the Taliban in capturing Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan Army. These groups operate several training camps across the border. The possibility of the war spilling into the tribals areas, Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, remains very high.
Their back against the wall, the PTM leaders are seeking support at the national as well as international level to highlight the plight of Pashtuns on either side of the border after the Taliban’s brutal seizure of Kabul. The PTM has requested their supporters, individuals and groups, to organise street protests in world capitals to highlight the grave danger in which the Pashtuns find themselves in and the threat posed to their lives by the Taliban and its allies along with Pakistan Army.
International organisations and individuals, working for peace in the war-torn Afghanistan, must bring in pressure on Pakistan Army to protect its Pashtun citizens from the disastrous fallout of the Afghan War. The army must give up its proxy war and turn to the welfare of its own people in the areas bordering Afghanistan.
