The Lahore police on Monday booked Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leader and rights activist Manzoor Pashteen under sections of terrorism for criticizing Pakistan army generals in his latest speech at the Asma Jahangir Conference 2022. Pashteen had named the powerful institution for the recent violence rampant in different areas of FATA.
The AJCONF is an annual conference named after Asma Jahangir, the famed lawyer and rights activist, that is convened in different cities of Pakistan. The session, titled ‘Reluctance to Criminalize Enforced Disappearance and Arbitrary Detention’, was attended by prominent activists, politicians, lawyers and student leaders.
During his fiery speech, Manzoor Pashteen had claimed that the national institutions – the military – were behind the killing of people in the erstwhile FATA under the policy of a “state of exceptions” for Pashtuns. He said that the new regime targeted human rights activists, journalists, and individuals who followed independent and critical thinking.
Giving the example of detained MNA Ali Wazir, Pashteen said the media, courts, civil society and the parliament were powerless to tackle the powers targeting independent thinking. “Resistance is the only way out”, the Pashtun leader said.
Soon after the conference, Pashteen took to Twitter to announce the police had lodged a complaint against him on charges of terrorism and intimidation because of his speech at the AJCONF. The complaint, which was registered at the Lahore Civil Lines police station by a man named Naeem Mirza, said Pashteen had criticized the top brass of Pakistan’s military in his speech.
The complaint further said that Pashteen had accused the army generals of “genocide against Pashtuns” and tried to provoke the public against the military. During his address, his supporters had chanted slogans against the Pakistani army, the complaint said.
Responding to the complaint, Pashteen said the voices of oppression cannot be silenced by FIRs, prisons or propaganda. MNA Mohsin Dawar also condemned the FIR, calling it “beyond shameful.”
“Many others have said far more in recent protests than what Manzoor said in his speech. Yet he is being charged with sedition and ATA. The ridiculous FIR should be withdrawn,” he tweeted.