PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Police clashed with supporters of a banned organization advocating for the rights of the Pashtun ethnic group in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, deploying tear gas and batons in a bid to disperse hundreds of protesters.
The clashes followed an announcement from Pakistani authorities this week that they were banning the Pashtun Protection Movement after concluding that it supports the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on civilians and security forces in recent years. Authorities barred the group from holding a rally in the restive northwest on charges of working against the interests of Pakistan. The group denies the charges.
The ban angered the supporters of the group, who clashed with police in Jamrud, a town near the northwestern city of Peshawar. Health officials said several injured demonstrators were taken to the hospital, and two of them were in critical condition.
Footage on social media showed police firing in the air and using tear gas and swinging batons to disperse the crowd, which responded by throwing stones at officers. Police say the demonstrators defied the ban on the rallies.
The Pashtun Protection Movement, or PTM, denies it backs the Pakistani Taliban, a separate group from and a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
The group was founded in 2014 after its leaders accused the military and local police of abuses in the war on terror Since then, the group has waged a campaign to force the military to leave the former tribal regions in the northwest bordering Afghanistan.
The military and the government have denied the allegation from PTM, saying the operations are carried out only against insurgents.
PTM has also repeatedly accused Pakistan’s security forces of illegally detaining its members.
Manzoor Pashteen, who heads the group, said it did not accept the government’s ban on its events and is still determined to hold a peaceful meeting of elders on Friday in Regi, a former militant stronghold in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Amnesty International on Wednesday also asked Pakistan’s government to revoke the ban on PTM.
The “latest arbitrary ban under over-broad powers of the terror law is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia. “For years the Pakistani authorities have suppressed such movements from marginalized regions by resorting to unlawful use of force, enforced disappearances, and media bans on the coverage of protests or rallies.”
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
