12 January 2023
By Arshad Mohmand
LAHORE
In the first eleven days of this year in Pakistan, the fourth protest against the growing unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was held in Mohmand tribal district. In the protest, workers of Pashtun political parties and local leaders gathered in the name of Aman Jirga and said that terrorism has increased in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and demanded the government control it. Take effective action regarding
Earlier, peace marches were held in Bannu South Waziristan and Bajaur, while a protest sit-in is going on in Wana for the establishment of peace.
ANP MPA Nisar Mohmand said that if the law and order situation deteriorates in the tribal areas, the unrest will spread throughout the country, therefore the tribal people want peace, and when there is peace here, there will be peace in Karachi and Lahore. There will be peace, there will be peace in Islamabad too. He said that if an attempt is made to disturb our peace, then the unrest will not only remain across Attock, but the unrest will spread throughout Pakistan.
“This time it will not be like this. We ask the state institutions and the government of Pakistan to end the insecurity. We need employment, education, health, and development.”
More than 60,000 people have lost their lives in the war against terrorism in Pakistan, where the majority belong to the Pashtun nation, while military operations have also taken place in the tribal districts and Malakand division, as a result of which millions of people have become homeless. Homes lost War-affected people say their homes have been destroyed and their families have gone missing along with their jobs.
JUI’s local leader Arshad Bakhtiar said that there is unrest here, that’s why people are gathering and this protest is happening, that’s why these jirgas are being held. Victims and the cycle of 2007 to 2016 is coming again and we don’t want to go back to that cycle.
The protesting people said that if the state does not establish peace, then these people will expand the scope of the protest and start a protest movement at the provincial level.
Political and social worker Maulana Khan Zeib says that basically, the jirgas being held here are spreading in all of Pakhtunkhwa. The state has to listen to this voice. It is their responsibility to provide security, employment, and peace and we want peace.
This series of protests started in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the month of August when, according to locals, there was the presence of armed men in Swat and firing on a provincial assembly candidate in Dir, against unrest in Dir and Swat and the right to peace. The protest movement started in I and spread to tribal districts and Pakhtunkhwa at that time negotiations were going on between the Pakistani government and the TTP and the local people were claiming the appearance of armed men.
