NY: PTM members hold protests against Pak Army

An anti-Pakistan protest was staged by the Civil rights group Pashtun Tahafuz Movement(PTM) members against the recent firing by Pakistani Army on a rally of Pashtun activists in South Waziristan.

The protestors appealed to United Nations (UN) to impose sanctions on Pakistan army.

The protest was staged in New York outside United Nations office and was also carried out against the state-sponsored Taliban, which is responsible for attacks on innocent Pashtuns.

The protests were conducted in solidarity with the PTM activists.

During the protests, the activists criticised the Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the security forces.

They raised slogan slamming the Pak army and Bajwa.

"Yeh jo mara mari, iske peeche wardi hai

Yeh jo dheshadgardi hai, iske peeche wardi hai

Yeh colonel general, dheshadgard

Yeh Bajwa Bajwa, dheshadgard!," it said.

Several PTM activists were allegedly killed as Pakistani security forces attacked a peaceful rally in South Waziristan last week.

The protesters demanded an investigation into the attack and asked the international community to intervene.

Pashtuns have long blamed that they have been targets of military operations, internal displacement, ethnic stereotyping and abductions by the Pakistani security forces.

They feel that they have been victims of gross human rights violations by Pakistan's military in federally administered tribal areas.

They allege that Pakistan army functions along with militant groups in the region and indiscriminately use force against innocent Pashtuns.

However, the Voice of Karachi chairman Nadeem Nusrat had strongly condemned the allegations of Pakistan Army against the PTM last week, saying, the country's military is a national security institution, not a court of law and that it has no legal or constitutional mandate to brand a "genuine grassroots movement as anti-state.