Parties convene Jirga to defend rights of pashtuns in Pakistan

To protest for the rights of ethnic minority Pashtuns and to discuss the issues faced by them, many parties in Pakistan's Bannu city convened a jirga on Friday.

Mehmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) said Pashtuns were killed in Karachi on May 12, 2007. He said that the family members of the killed Pashtuns were never compensated, reported The News International.

The PMAP chief said under a plot, elements were brought in and settled in the tribal regions that targeted the religious Pashtuns' tribal elders through acts of terror.

Jirga should declare non-tolerance for Pashtuns exploitation, said Achakzai. Mehmood Khan said the Pashtuns belt had natural resources but despite that, the Pashtuns were kept deprived. He said that control over the resources needs to be regained.

The leaders who participated in the jirga included Mehmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), Mohsin Dawar of National Democratic Movement, Nawab Ayaz Jogizai, the nawab of Balochistan, Khushhal Khan Kakar, Malik Shaukatullah Khan, Malik Haroon Khan, Malik, Sher Ali Baz Khan, Malik Shuaib Khan Sadozai, Abdus Samad Khan, Nisar KLhan Mandan, and tribal elders from KP, Balochistan and Punjab.

In a move to clampdown Pashtuns, Pakistan police formally arrested incarcerated Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM)) leader Ali Wazir in a case pertaining to allegedly delivering provocative speeches against the security establishment.

Wazir was arrested in Peshawar on December 16, 2020, at the request of the Sindh police, and flew to Karachi. Wazir was arrested on the charges of making insulting and incendiary speeches against the state institutions at a PTM protest rally in Karachi on December 6, 2020.

The PTM leader was charged for treason and hate speech against the state. However, Wazir denied such allegations and blamed the state for a biased attitude towards minorities.

The Pashtun activists have been demanding the immediate release of PTM leader Ali Wazir by organizing protests.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor