Stringer Asia Logo
Share on Google+
news of the day
in depth
Pakistan and missing people
  • Naqeebullah Naqeeb Mehsud
    Naqeebullah Naqeeb Mehsud
The extra judicial killing of the young Pashtun social media celebrity Naqeeb Mehsud became the sparkle to motivate fellow Pashtun across the country for agitation.

The death took place when the Pakistani POLICE officer well known for his fake encounter announced that Naqeeb Mehsud was part of the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan. After visiting his facebook page several modeling photos and his profile through security agencies clearance [as necessary for every cast member who enters FATA">.

As per the News International, a Pakistani daily report that majority of the missing persons are from Khyber Pashtunkhwa and FATA. It is obvious as to many military operations in Swat and FATA as well as minor surgical operations by the Law Enforcing Agencies across Pakistan have taken all these people with them and their whereabouts and status of justice is yet not known to anybody, neither to their relatives and families nor to the Pakistan based Humanitarian groups who focus Human Rights violation across the world.

No doubt the Pashtun in Karachi started their agitation by blocking the main highway connecting Sindh province with rest of the country stirred the youths, journalists, civil society, political parties, celebrities and political leadership on their social media pages to “condemn” the murder of Naqeeb Mehsud in a massive way.

Earlier, one of planned march from Waziristan to Islamabad was aimed for freeing Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) from the dispersed mines that are killing and disabling the local population since long.

Though, it was a co-incidence that the earlier Mehsud Tribal Movement [MTM"> “mines free FATA” and the surfacing news of Naqeeb Mehsud murder in fake encounter boosted the MTM to become “Pashtun Long March” now trending as one of the top topic in Pakistan’s social media circles.

The March passing through Peshawar and Khyber Pashtunkhwa reached Islamabad where thousands of people joined the March and put forward a political and rights based agenda for the government. That included the justice for Naqeeb Mehsud and alike him many youths who’re missing and several of them killed in such encounters. An end to the extra judicial killing of Pashtuns across Pakistan, bringing all missing persons before the courts for judicial trail those who’re guilty should be given punishment through courts and law and innocents should get release, free FATA from the dispersed mines that have disabled more than 70 people in the Mehsud cast area alone. An end to the atrocities in the form of search operations and curfews and arrest of many people from the innocent masses where the incident takes place are the legitimate, constitutional and human rights based agendas.

Pakistan as mentioned by the Humanitarian organization reports where the minorities live in fear, the terrorism has caused enough destruction across Pashtunkhwa in particular and in the country in general. The minorities of Pashtun, Baloch, Sindhi and Siraiki as well as the religious minorities and gender based miseries are a long sheet to present. Earlier the same sort of March by the Baloch missing persons families did not resulted may be owing to the less focus through Pakistani media and support from the rest of the population corners of Punjab, Pashtunkhwa and Sindh.

The Pakistani media, though, kept these peacefully agitating youths from across Pashtunkhwa in a “blackout” category. This caused the anger of Pashtun youths and masses across the world to give momentum to the call of the “PLM” and the no presence of government officials for meeting the organizers of the March give it a boost.

Though the Pashtun leadership who’re having their center of elections and politics in Pashtunkhwa [Northern Balochistan, FATA, Khyber Pashtunkwa"> addressed the March and vowed that they’re endorse the demands of the PLM.

A twist came in when yesterday the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani tweeted in the support of PLM. “I fully support the historical #PashtunLongMarch in Pakistan. The main purpose of which is to mobilize citizens against fundamentalism and terrorism in the region”, reads a tweet by the Afghan President.

The comment of Afghan President not only stirred the Pakistan based civil society to come on for commenting on the PLM after a ten day absence, as well they criticized Afghan President for involving in the issues of Pakistanis.

The Pashtun diaspora in the West have come out to support the PLM and their political demands which are sheer “humanitarian” in nature has resulted when the PLM organizer Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen said “since the start of the sit-in [PLM"> 71 of the missing Pashtuns have returned their homes” according to him he confirmed them through phone calls received from the families.

Though, yet the Pakistani authorities have not come in advance to support or hear the demands of the PLM and the earlier meetings with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had filed as the PLM demanded the written “guarantee” of fulfilling their demands, sources from the organizers told. But now the outcome in the form of releasing missing person is showing how the PLM has resulted. And still much more to be waited for as a result of the Pashtun Long March.
Malik Achakzai
@COOKIE1@
@COOKIE2@