The Pakistani Army have always tried to use its geographical advantage to secure funds from the West. They claim, the funds are for ‘counter-terrorism’. The West always believes. In reality, Pakistan has taken these funds and used it to oppress its own citizens across Balochistan and Pashtun region. While terrorists are given security detail, air conditioned compounds and massive army convoys to hide from the world.
Let’s take Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM)’s example. The Pakistani state and army has not spared any effort or expense to eliminate its curent leader Manzoor Pashteen. Four assassination attempts had already been thwarted for Pashteen. These were – a planned ambush at Bilal Market, two assaults on his home, and a complex six-day scheme to kill him at Karkhanu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. His only fault is to highlight the injustices and senseless killing of the Pashtun by the Paksitani Army to world. The attacks and threats went up a notch after the Pashtun National Jirga offered its support to PTM.
Levsa Bayankhail, who is a member of the PTM International Advocacy Committee, commented that Asif Munir, the Pakistani General, had recently visited the region. Yes, the same Asif Munir who has so scared of the Indian Raid, that He spent the entire duration inside his bunker. She alleges that Munir sought to coerce local leaders into endorsing a new military operation to receive foreign aid and the potential to invite another proxy war in Afghanistan and the Pashtun region of Pakistan.
PTM claims military offensives like these are the reason – that over 32,000 Pashtuns have disappeared from these parts of Pakistan in the past ten years.
On July 11, 2024, Gilaman Wazir, a well-known Pashtun poet renowned for his poetry of resistance, passed away at a hospital in Islamabad. After three days in a coma, Gilaman passed away from wounds he received in an armed men’s attack in an Islamabad café. This incident also highlights how TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) is being used by Pakistani state to suppress the Pashtun. Gilaman, like many others in PTM was very vocal about his opposition to the TTP.
If we look at the state of Balochistan, the condition is much worse. It is the largest state in Pakistan by land mass and over 70% of the population lives in multidimensional poverty. Here the Pakistani state has made “kill & Dump” their official policy. Starting with Ghulam Mohammed Baloch, who was a prominent Balochi leader. He along with two other political activists were abducted in April,2009 and four days later their mutilated bodies were found. “The Turbat Killings” serves as the start of a nightmare for the Baloch people that is yet to end.
Habib Jalib Baloch, who was a senator and the secretary-general of the Balochistan National Party, was assassinated in Quetta in July, 2010. Tariq Baloch, a famous Balochi race car driver was also killed in May, 2025. Activists attribute the killings to the long standing and systematic policy of ‘kill and dump”. Which they claim is aimed at silencing Baloch voices. Mahrang Baloch, a human rights and Balochi activist was also arrested for arranging a sit-in protest.
Despite numerous attempts by the activists from both the regions, there is an eerie silence on the international front. Nobody is paying any heed to the sufferings of the Balochis and the Pashtuns. The western outlook of looking at Pakistan as a strategic resource for keeping Taliban in check has turned the region into a chessboard where the lives of ordinary people are expendable.
The only way forward for both of these entities is to join forces and mount joint international pressure to stop funding the ‘counter-terrorism efforts’ by Pakistani army , which is being used to kill civilians in broad daylight and to suppress anyone who disagrees with the Pakistani Army and its idea of the Pakistani state.
