Pashtun and Baloch students protested in front of Multan press club on Thursday
According to details received by The Balochistan Post, Pashtun and Baloch students carried out a joint protest in Multan.
The protest was against the killing of Superintendent of Police, Tahir Dawar and enforced disappearances of Baloch and Pashtun people.
Superintendent of police (SP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tahir Dawar was first reported missing from his Islamabad residence on October 26 and on November 14, the Afghan government confirmed the discovery of a body along with the service card of SP Tahir Dawar.
A press release by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul that locals had found the body in Dur Baba district of Nangarhar province a day earlier.
The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), an organisation striving against the enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of Pashtun people in Pakistan, had already announced countrywide protests against Tahir’s murder.
PTM alleges that Pakistan army and intelligence agencies are responsible for enforced disappearances.
“We are determined to question and protest this murder in such a forceful way that this state is going to remember it forever,” Mohsin Dawar said.
Mohsin represents Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s North Waziristan tribal district in Pakistani Parliament and also a senior member of PTM.
Including PTM, many Pashtun leaders hold Pakistan state responsible for the murder of Tahir Dawar.
During the protest in Multan, student speakers said that ‘the purpose of protesting here today is to tell the people to raise their voice against enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of Baloch and Pashtuns’.
Balochistan is also plagued by the enforced disappearances of Baloch youth and activists. Recent instances of ‘women and children abductions’ have also been reported.
International rights organizations have termed the extra-judicial killing of Baloch missing persons as the ‘Kill and Dump’ policy of Pakistani forces to subdue the uprising in Balochistan.