After facing global isolation and humiliation for its failed attempts to internationalise the Kashmir issue, the Imran Khan-led terror state of Pakistan is now facing a legitimacy crisis within its own country as a prominent Pashtun group has backed India’s decision on Jammu and Kashmir, reports Economic Times.
Reportedly, Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), the principal body representing Pashtuns in Pakistan, has rejected Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent call to people in Pakistan urging them to come out and support Pakistan’s narrative on Kashmir.
In a statement issued on social media, the movement supported India’s decision to end the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and refused to protest against India. A part of the statement read Jammu and Kashmir is now “free from shackles of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and vested interest groups.”
PTM, a social movement for Pashtun human-rights based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, is gaining in prominence as a champion of Pashtun rights in Pakistan. It organised a long march on January 26 last year, demanding rights and justice for Pashtuns including in cases of enforced disappearances.
Recently, the PTI government of Pakistan led by Imran Khan had asked all its citizens, and political and social groups to step out on streets in solidarity with the people of Kashmir.
Further, the leaders of PTM also advised PM Khan to learn from India to manage the crisis without using fighter jets against its own people. They also held the Pakistan government responsible for the displacement of 100,000 Pashtuns from their native places in a decade and missing of 3,300 youth.
It called on US President Donald Trump to put pressure on Pakistan to shun violence in Jammu and Kashmir instead of offering to mediate between the two neighbouring countries.
According to the PTM leaders and other Pashtun leaders residing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 362 Kashmiri civilians may have been killed at the hands of forces in Kashmir in comparison to the demolition of 120,000 houses of Pashtuns during the past two decades, leading to deaths of many Pashtuns in the past 15 years.
Facing decades of repression, the minorities in Pakistan are now taking up the fight against the state of Pakistan for inflicting human rights abuses on them. Recently, one of the prominent leaders of the minority Mohajir community, Nadeem Nusrat had slammed Pakistan government stating that Pakistan had “no moral right to speak on behalf of Kashmiris.”
Nadeem Nusrat had also warned Pakistan that it could face a “potentially existential threat” and advised Islamabad to restructure Pakistan into multiple autonomous states suggesting that it is the only viable solution to save the country.
