Arif Wazir, a leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), died in Islamabad on Saturday after being attacked a day earlier by unknown assailants outside his home in Wana, South Waziristan.
Wana Station House Officer confirmed that Wazir had succumbed to his injuries after being shifted to Islamabad for treatment.
As per the reports, Arif Wazir was outside his residence on Friday in Ghwa Khwa area of Wana, when unidentified armed men opened fire from a moving vehicle. Arif Wazir received critical injuries in the attack.
Due to life-threatening injuries he was shifted to a hospital in Islamabad.
Arif Wazir is the first cousin of a member of Pakistan’s parliament, Ali Wazir, a prominent leader of the PTM. MNA Ali Wazir along with Mohsin Dawar of PTM were arrested by police last year, after a protest gathering in Kharqamar.
Rights group Amnesty International in a statement on Saturday said, “the Pakistani authorities must carry out an independent and effective investigation into the attack on Arif Wazir, a member of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement. The suspected perpetrators must be held accountable.”
The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) or Pashtun Protection Movement, is working with the families of those who have been disappeared during more than 15 years of unrest in Pakistan’s northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, and parts of southwestern Balochistan Province. These regions are predominantly populated by ethnic Pashtuns, who comprise up to 20 percent of the country’s population.
The party has been critical of the state’s policies and specifically the army in Waziristan, for a large number of enforced disappearances and violations of human rights.
PTM’s leaders, in particular its elected members to the National Assembly, have come under fire for pursuing the release of individuals detained by authorities without due process. The army has alleged the party of running an anti-national agenda and for playing into the hands of the state’s enemies.
The party while rejecting these allegations, has insisted that theirs is a peaceful struggle for the rights of people from the country’s tribal belt.
This year in January, PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen was arrested from Peshawar’s Shaheen Town for making a speech in Dera Ismail Khan during which he allegedly said that the 1973 Constitution violated basic human rights. The FIR said Pashteen also made derogatory remarks about the state.
A day later, Mohsin Dawar was arrested briefly from outside the Islamabad press club alongside several other individuals while protesting Pashteen’s detention.
Last year, Arman Looni, a core committee member of PTM was allegedly tortured to death by the Police.
PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen, in a Facebook post, said that Police along with secret agency’s personnel stopped Arman Looni when he was on his way to home, he was beaten with rifle butts and left on road in severely injured condition.
The enforced disappearances issue in Pakistan has become very serious for a decade now. Not only Pashtuns but Baloch and Sindhi ethnic groups have been protesting and criticizing the state and army policies. Many human rights organisations such as UNHCR, Amnesty and HRW have been taking notices time to time but no measures have been taken by the state towards solving this alarming issue.