Senior PTM leader dies after Wana gun attack

PESHAWAR: Arif Wazir, a senior leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) died in an Islamabad hospital on Saturday, a day after he was attacked by unidentified gunmen in the South Waziristan tribal district, senior members of his party said.
The PTM which identifies as a Pashtun rights movement campaigns against what it alleges are military excesses against ethnic populations during anti-terrorism operations.
PTM emerged in 2018, after the killing of an ethnic Pashtun man by police in the port city of Karachi. The killing led to nationwide protests.
On Friday, minutes before iftar, indiscriminate firing from a moving car outside Wazir's home in Wana left the Pashtun leader critically wounded according to PTM leader Abdullah Nangyal. Following this, he was taken to Islamabad for treatment.
"But [I say] with a heavy heart, Arif Wazir embraced martyrdom on Saturday morning," Nangyal told Arab News.
Soon after his killing, rights group Amnesty International said in a statement that Pakistani authorities must carry out an independent and effective investigation into the attack on Wazir.
Mohsin Dawar, a member of Pakistan's national assembly and a PTM founding leader told Arab News that it was the responsibility of the state to ensure the protection of its citizens.
“It’s a failure of the state for not protecting its citizens," he said. 
The deceased, who had been released from prison on bail a month ago after being charged with delivering an "anti-Pakistan" speech in April, was also the first cousin of sitting MNA Ali Wazir from South Waziristan. Nangyal said the lawmaker had lost over a dozen family members in recent years to armed assaults by militants. 
Pakistan says members of the PTM are funded by foreign states and agencies. The PTM denies any external links.
Many PTM supporters are ethnic Pashtuns who hail originally from areas bordering Afghanistan, which used to be the center point of a long insurgency by Taliban and subsequent operations by the Pakistan army.