LAHORE: Leaders of Pakistan’s Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) vowed to defy a ban and go ahead with a mass protest in the eastern city of Lahore Sunday, just hours after officials cracked down on the group.
Since launching three months ago, the PTM has rattled the powerful military with a nationwide campaign calling for an end to extrajudicial killings, “disappearances” and other abuses by police and troops.
Despite a far-reaching media blackout the movement has drawn tens of thousands of supporters to their protests in one of the strongest challenges to Pakistan’s security establishment for years.
Late Saturday officials in Lahore detained PTM leaders along with representatives of the Awami Workers Party and student activists following raids on Punjab University and a hotel.
A local police official confirmed the incident but said the activists have since been released.
The crackdown sparked anger on social media with the hashtags #ReleasePTMWorkers and #ShameOnPunjabPolice gaining traction.
PTM supporters from across the country have flocked to Lahore in recent days before the anticipated rally.
The movement’s leader Manzoor Pastheen vowed to continue with the demonstration even after authorities refused to provide the necessary documentation, citing “security circumstances.”
“We won’t stay silent. We will hold the rally at any cost,” said Pastheen in a message posted early Sunday.
The PTM came to prominence in February after the killing of a young social media star in Karachi unleashed festering anger at authorities over the alleged targeting of Pashtuns in the country’s long war on militancy.
The military has accused the PTM of colluding with arch-rival India and overseeing a campaign to destabilize the country.
Criticism of Pakistan’s powerful armed forces, especially their counter-insurgency operations, is largely seen as a step too far.
However, the PTM argues that Pashtuns have bore the brunt of the long fight against terrorism.
The “Pashtun belt” in the northwest bordering Afghanistan has suffered severely from militant violence for over a decade as the Afghan war split over the border, leading to repeated military operations in the region.
Pashtuns account for roughly 15 percent of the population, with a majority of the 30 million-strong group living in the northwest.
Pakistan Pashtun activists vow to hold banned Lahore rally
Pakistan Pashtun activists vow to hold banned Lahore rally
- The PTM came to prominence in February after the killing of a young social media star in Karachi unleashed festering anger at authorities over the alleged targeting of Pashtuns
- The military has accused the PTM of colluding with arch-rival India and overseeing a campaign to destabilize the country
Hungry, wounded, orphaned: South Sudan’s children trapped in new conflict
- The hospital in Akobo has only one surgeon, now overwhelmed
- More than 40 young men were being treated for gunshot wounds during AFP’s visit
AKOBO, South Sudan: An 18-month-old boy lies motionless on a dirty hospital bed deep in the conflict zone of South Sudan, a bullet wound in his leg — another newly orphaned victim in the world’s newest country.
“When they arrived, they started shooting everyone in the area — elder, child, and mother,” Nyayual, his grandmother, told AFP at the hospital in the opposition-held town of Akobo, eastern Jonglei State.
The bullet that hit the little boy also killed his mother — Nyayual’s daughter. AFP is using only her first name for fear of reprisals.
She says it was government forces that attacked their village.
“We ran away... they were still shooting at us,” she said. “This failed government has no way to resolve things.”
South Sudan gained independence in 2011 but soon descended into civil war between two rival generals, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar.
A 2018 power-sharing deal brought relative peace, with Kiir as president and Machar his deputy, but the agreement has unraveled over the past year.
Fighting in Jonglei state between the army under Kiir and forces loyal to Machar has displaced some 280,000 people since December, according to the United Nations.
The hospital in Akobo — a ramshackle collection of buildings, most without doors or windows — has only one surgeon, now overwhelmed. More than 40 young men were being treated for gunshot wounds during AFP’s visit.
In one ward, an elderly woman lay, her face turned away from the family around her. She was shot by soldiers in both legs, they said. They carried her for days before finding a car that agreed to bring them to the hospital.
The military declined to comment to AFP on the claims. The Jonglei state government’s information minister, Nyamar Lony Thichot Ngundeng, said she did not have information about the incidents.
However, she added: “If you get injured during the crossfire, that is counted as a crossfire, it is not intentional.”
- ‘Disaster’ -
UNICEF says more than half the displaced are children, some fleeing for the second or third time. Around 825,000 are at risk of acute malnutrition across three of South Sudan’s states: Jonglei, Unity and Eastern Equatoria.
Akeer Amou, 33, fled Jonglei for an informal camp on the banks of the White Nile, where she gave birth to her fifth child.
Not on any maps, the place is known only as Yolakot, meaning riverside, but hundreds of women and children now live under the shade of its trees, waiting for help. AFP saw at least three other newborns among them.
Amou named her child Riak, meaning “disaster.”
She does not know why the conflict is happening, but she knows her son will bear the brunt.
“Breast milk can come if there is something to eat, but now there is nothing,” she said, gently rocking Riak under the scant protection of a cotton sheet.
The mothers spend the days foraging for fruit, nuts, and water lily seeds, while children splash in the river’s murky waters.
Most are desperately hungry. A local official told AFP there were roughly 6,700 people waiting for food, but there was no sign of any aid.
- Out of supplies -
In Jonglei’s state capital Bor, doctors try to serve the massive influx of displaced people with rapidly dwindling supplies.
David Tor, acting director of the town’s hospital, introduced AFP to a mother who had been forced to deliver in nearby swamp land. He had managed to reduce the newborn’s fever, a rare bit of good news.
The mother fled Fangak, a town to the north, where last May the only health care facility for more than 100,000 people — run by international NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) — was attacked by helicopter gunships and drones, which completely destroyed its pharmacy and all its medical supplies.
“Because of the increase in the number of people who need services, we have run out of almost everything,” said Tor. “At a certain point we may lose patients.”
Jonglei information minister Ngundeng told AFP the hospital would receive supplies.
“I would say it’s enough until the hospital or the ministry of health says otherwise,” she said.
- Trapped -
South Sudan is ranked the most corrupt country in the world by monitoring group Transparency International.
Billions in oil revenue have been stolen by the elite, according to the UN, and the country relies on international donors for 80-90 percent of its health care needs.
Fresh conflict is creating another generation of children with few prospects for a better life. The World Bank estimates 70 percent are not in school.
In the displacement camp in Lake State, south of Bor, where some 35,000 people have recently arrived, mothers queued to sign up their children for an emergency education and psycho-social program run by the Norwegian Refugee Council. It has already registered 2,000 children.
Some of those in the queue may never escape this life.
Nyanhiar Malneth, 28, grew up in an earlier conflict in the country. Her schooling ended when she was eight and she has spent years in displacement camps with her five children.
“I want them to go to school for knowledge,” she said.
But first there are more urgent concerns: “We need something to eat.”
