Social activists in London raise issues of labeling Pashtun minorities as terrorists by Pakistan Army

London [UK], April 8 (ANI): Minorities are suffering, girls are getting forced to convert and Pashtuns are being labelled as terrorists, participants said at a virtual conference on the condition of human rights in Pakistan.

The event was hosted by Arif Ajakia, a human rights activist from Pakistan. Among the participants were David Vance, a social rights activist and researcher, Azeem Masih, the vice president of the Pakistan Minorities Rights Organisation (PMRO), Habibur Rahman, the president of the France chapter of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), and Salih Uder, the foreign minister of government in exile in East Turkestan.

While speaking about the condition of human rights in Pakistan, Azeem Masih, the Vice President of PMRO Pakistan, stated, "We discuss human rights issues everywhere. But I think that the issues in Pakistan are much more tense than anywhere else, especially because minorities in Pakistan are suffering. And you can see every day the churches are getting attacked, the girls are getting forced to convert and they’re kidnapped, even the underage girls are getting taken away from their parents; they’re forced to get married and all the chapters of different political parties are lashing against each other".

"But not only for the minorities, there are different things oppressing each other in Pakistan. Some provinces have more rights than others. Some provinces have more control than others in Pakistan. All those things are mixed up and those mixed up things are making more trouble for the humans living in Pakistan," Masih added.

Adding to the point, Ajakia stated, "Punjab province is ruling on the might of its army and other provinces are more like an occupied province or occupied nations, such as Sindhis, Balochs, and Pashtuns. And this is the situation; rightfully, more and more awareness should be brought about minority issues. The Pashtun issue is a very serious issue and they are branded as terrorists but they are victims of terrorism. The Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan are facing one of the serious violations of human rights in Pakistan, particularly".

The virtual seminar on Saturday witnessed the participation of representatives from social organisations across the world and the foreign minister of government in exile of East Turkestan. The Asian Human Rights Forum organised a virtual discussion over the issues of grave human rights violations in Asian countries.

Another leader belonging to the Pashtun community of Pakistan, Habibur Rahman, the president of PTM France, said in his statement "We are here, we are raising the voice of oppressed Pashtuns, and also all other oppressed communities like Balochs, Sindhis, and the people of POK, which are suffering because of the army of Pakistan."During the conference, he further mentioned that "The army always talks about these terrorists, which in reality are fostered by Pakistan. They go to the area of Pashtuns by the name of Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish, like this kind of terrorist."He further mentioned, "They are bombing the houses of Pashtuns and they are conducting enforced disappearances, ultimately calling it anti-terrorism. But Pashtuns are not terrorists. Pashtuns have always been the victims of terrorism. The world now knows that they are training terrorists, and this army of Pakistan is the terrorists." (ANI)