After losing the recent military conflict with India, Pakistan’s military establishment is taking out its frustration on the Pashtun population in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through arbitrary drone strikes and extrajudicial killings. While the India-Pakistan military conflict was going on, most Pashtun politicians and activists remained silent and refused to take sides with the Pakistan Army. Reports suggest that this led to anger and frustration in Rawalpindi, which is now punishing the poor Pashtuns in their tribal areas. In the previous military operations in Pashtun areas of Pakistan, the military establishment used fighter jets on its citizens under the pretext of bombing alleged militant hideouts. Members of the Pashtun community blame the Pakistan military’s violent behavior against them on their “Punjabi” supremacist mindset.
After the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Punjabi elite of Pakistan became increasingly insecure about the potential Pashtun consolidation in the region, with growing calls for ‘Pashtunistan’. More importantly, the Taliban leadership has refused to follow orders from Islamabad and pushed back on several matters of bilateral concern, such as Pakistan’s unilateral border fencing, attempts to legitimize the Durand Line, and trade issues. In addition, Pakistan has forcefully evicted lakhs of Afghan refugees, legal and illegal, since November 2023. This draconian policy has mostly impacted the Pashtun community on both sides of the border. It is a clear example that the Punjabi elite policymakers in Pakistan are punishing the minority Pashtuns in multiple ways.
On the other hand, incidents of drone strikes in the tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province have significantly increased in the past 12 months. Pakistan’s military is using the excuse of targeting Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideouts to cause panic and create instability in KPK. There has been no evidence to suggest that the Pakistani drone strikes were successful in deterring the TTP and other militant groups operating in KPK. However, reports of civilian casualties, including Pashtun women and children in KPK, have become common these days. With complete control of the mainstream media in Pakistan, the military establishment does not allow real facts to emerge from the tribal areas. Even the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is not permitted to share information on such incidents. As a resource-rich province, particularly in the tribal agencies, KPK encounters strict military control and involvement in local governance matters. Islamabad believes that this aggressive strategy in KPK would work as a deterrent against the Taliban government, hinder any possibility of the Pashtun consolidation, and allow them to extract critical minerals.
In the recent incident, Pakistan Army conducted drone strikes on a house in Dera Ismail Khan, alleging it to be a militant hideout. Like previous such strikes, several civilians got severely injured, including 10 children. The incident occurred at a time when there was a mass protest going on in Janikheltribal area against such arbitrary drone attacks on the Pashtun population in KPK. In the Janikhel drone attack earlier this month, 15 civilians (seven women and eight children) were injured, prompting a major protest outside the military base. This was the third drone strike in a week, which the military claims were carried out on “suspicious movements”, but the victims always turn out to be civilians.
Neither the provincial nor the federal government has commented on these incidents or addressed the plight of Pashtuns. Moreover, after the Jaffar Express hijack incident in March, Pakistan’s military establishment announced an aggressive approach to turn the country into a “hard state,” indicating the intensification of anti-terror operations in border provinces like Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These operations are already impacting the daily livelihoods of the local population in these provinces and increasing civilian casualties and incidents of enforced disappearances. Sources also suggest that the Pakistan Army will punish the Baloch and Pashtuns for remaining silent during the India-Pakistan military conflict and for not supporting General Syed Asim Munir, whose hardline policies have caused turmoil in these areas.
On May 12, another act of cruelty, barbarity, and violation of human rights was committed in Malu Khel village of Shewa, North Waziristan, where the Pakistan Army took the life of an innocent child in a drone strike, who was reportedly the son of a police officer. The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM)strongly condemned this cowardly, illegal, and immoral actand warned the security establishment to stop such atrocities. Similarly, on March 29, the Army conducted three drone strikes on a makeshift tent in the Mardan district of KPK, leading to multiple civilians, including women and children, being killed in an alleged operation against militants. The incident sparked public outrage, with people staging a massive protest and temporarily blocking the Swat Motorway – a major route leading to the Swat Valley – to condemn the killing of civilians.
As expected, the Pakistan military did not stop its draconian military campaign against unarmed Pashtuns in KPK. While the world’s big powers discuss child protection, human rights, and ending drone attacks in war-torn areas, the Pakistani establishment indiscriminately attacks the homes of its citizens and children, especially against Baloch, Pashtuns,and people from the occupied territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. The Pashtun homes have become battlefields, and these drones continue to massacre their generation silently. It is a well-known tactic of Pakistan’s military, targeting helpless people—children and families—instead of terrorists under the guise of combating terrorism.Consequently, the Pashtun population increasingly feels alienated, and non-violent groups like PTM are fighting tooth and nail against the military to safeguard innocent lives in KPK.
Nevertheless, locals fear that tensions with India have subsided; a violent military campaign in KPK, particularly in the tribal agencies, has already begun, and recent drone strikes clearly hint at that. In these circumstances, Pashtun groups have called on community members to stand in solidarity with their oppressed tribe and participate in ongoing protests against oppression in Jani Khel, Bannu, and Mirian, Bannu, or otherwise campaign for their rights on social media. Experts believe that the ongoing oppression by the Pakistan military may consolidate Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand Line. Lastly, the international community should pay close attention to the ongoing massacre of innocent Pashtuns in KPK and address it with Pakistan, which is currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
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