In 2022, during a large political gathering in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, a young Pashtun poet rose to recite his recently penned poem. In his distinctive tone, the young poet lamented how he could praise his beloved when his Pashtun nation was in despair. Amidst continuous cheering from the crowd, he recited:
When all is ruined, my country and my town
Every wall of my house has fallen down
How can I praise your golden crown?
Here, my house is in flames
There, my son lies a martyr
On both sides of the border line
Pashtuns bewail and mourn
How can I admire your hair clips?
While these words continue to reverberate among the Pashtun people, the young poet Gilaman Wazir has been silenced forever by the state apparatus of Pakistan. On July 7, Wazir, also known as Gilaman Pashteen, though his real name was Hazrat Naeem, was assaulted and tortured by a group of ‘unknown’ men in Islamabad belonging to Pakistan Army’s intelligence wing, in Islamabad. He succumbed to his injuries on July 11, adding to the deep resentment against the state. The region has since seen large protests against his killing.
Gilaman Wazir, 29, belonged to a prominent Wazir tribe and hailed from Turikhel Asad Khel village in the Ramzak area of North Waziristan. He was actively associated with the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) from the outset and served as its central committee member. He was considered the close confidante of the movement’s founder Manzoor Pashteen.
The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has emerged as a strong proponent of the rights of the Pashtun people in Pakistan. The movement traces its origins to the Pakistani government’s war in Waziristan. In 2014, eight students from Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan, led by Manzoor Ahmad from the Mehsud Tribe, launched the Mehsud Tahafuz Movement (MTM) to protest the persecution of their tribe and the demining of their region.
As the Pakistan Army launched another large-scale military campaign in Waziristan in 2014, MTM began public protests against increasing civilian killings, especially extrajudicial killings, and the mass displacement of tribal people.
The Mehsud Movement evolved into a pan-Pashtun movement in 2018 following the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud and four other Pashtun men by Pakistani police officer Rao Anwar Ahmed, known as the “encounter specialist,” on January 13, 2018, in Karachi. In response, the 24-year-old Manzoor Ahmad and his 21 associates from the Mehsud Movement embarked on a Long March from Dera Ismail Khan on January 26, reaching Peshawar, the KPK capital, on January 28, and finally arriving in Pakistan’s federal capital, Islamabad, on February 1, 2018.
Adopting the slogans of “ye jo deshatgardi hai iskay peche wardi hai” (The ones responsible for terrorism are the ones in uniform (Army)) and “Da sangaazadi da?” (What kind of freedom is this?), the march became a rallying cry for Pashtuns who endured state repression for years. It attracted widespread support, crossing tribal fault lines as thousands joined the march en route to Islamabad.
This development prompted the Mehsud Movement to rechristen itself as the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), or the Movement for the Protection of Pashtuns, to proclaim itself as the voice of all Pashtuns people. This declaration was made during its All-Pashtun National Jirga in Islamabad on February 1, 2018. The PTM demanded that the Pakistani government recover thousands of missing men who had been subjected to state-enforced disappearances, end the humiliating checks at army checkpoints, clear landmines from Waziristan, and punish security officials involved in extrajudicial killings.
While many initially described the PTM as a momentary outburst of tribal rage against encounter killings, the wide-ranging support from across KPK demonstrated its organic rise and grassroots backing. Over the years, it has “come to represent a resilient, peaceful, and popular initiative that has withstood extensive state repression, persecution, and a media blackout since its inception”.
However, instead of addressing the grave abuses and rights violations committed by the Pakistan Army, such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, the Pakistani government labelled the PTM as a terrorist group and accused it of treason, claiming it was fronting for anti-Pakistan forces. For instance, perturbed by the PTM’s popular support and its calls for accountability from Pakistan’s security forces, Pakistan’s military establishment coerced the traditional tribal elites, who had joined the long march, to ostracize PTM’s young leaders in an attempt to weaken tribal solidarity. Yet, this only paved the way for what has become Pakistan’s “most dynamic, active, and nonviolent youth political uprising” ever, making the PTM a voice for the long-subdued and silenced people across the tribal hinterland of Pakistan.
Unlike Pakistani media, civil society and electoral politicians, who have always played it safe or been too scared to expose the misdeeds of the state and the Army in particular, the PTM has not shied away from naming and exposing its brazen rights violations and oppression against the Pashtuns. Consequently, the Pakistan military has recurrently accused them of crossing its imaginary “red lines”. For instance, in an attempt to discredit the PTM and its leadership, the Pakistan Army in 2018 put up hundreds of banners depicting Manzoor Pashteen alongside then Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah. Additionally, the Army enforced a media blackout on the PTM, warning channels and newspapers against publishing anything about the movement.
This civil rights movement has left the Pakistan Army red-faced through its non-violent resistance. Most importantly, the PTM has ended the enforced silence among the people of KPK, who had long been coerced into bearing state atrocities silently.
Pakistan’s military establishment has used every tactic in its armour to compel the PTM movement to pick up arms. Yet the group has endured the oppression and consistently denied the state an opportunity to associate it with terrorism. The killing of Gilaman Wazir should be seen in this context as well.
The Pashtun Tahfuz Movement holds significant importance within the broader context of the Pashtunistan movement, the struggle for the establishment of an independent Pashtun homeland crisscrossing the Durand Line. PTM’s valiant ethnic expression for the rights of Pashtun people and Pakistan’s aversion to this expression has a historical context as the Pakistani state has always labelled Pashtun tribal solidarity as an affront to the idea of Pakistan.
Ever since Pakistan’s creation by a forced union of five distinct ethnic regions in 1947, the Pakistan Army has assumed unaccountable powers. It justified its excesses as a compulsion to secure Pakistan’s artificial integrity. But it has failed to suppress the ethnic nationalist expressions. With Bengalis having reclaimed Bangladesh in 1971, Pashtuns are getting ready to repeat history. Just like it did in East Pakistan, now the Pakistan military has resorted to unimaginable atrocities against the Pashtun people, alongside Balochis. The demand for Pashtunistan has gained tremendous momentum and PTM, targeted by the Pakistani state, is leading from the front.
It appears that the Pakistani state, especially the military establishment, believes that it can kill the aspiration for an independent homeland of the Pashtun people by force. It is a gross miscalculation and if one may argue, the actions of the Pakistan establishment are adding fuel to the fire. As Manzoor Pashteen stated at Gilaman’s funeral addressing the state of Pakistan: “The situation you have created shows that the Pashtuns are no longer with you…We may lose a hundred thousand lives, but we will not give up this land.”
The writer is an author and columnist and has written several books. His X handle is @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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