(9 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Khyber District, Peshawar, Pakistan – 09 October 2024
1. Various of clashes between police and banned organisation advocating for the rights of the Pashtun ethnic group
2. Group of protestors carrying wounded
3. SOUNDBITE (Pashtu) Ilyas Zahir:
“We were protesting peacefully. They (police) opened fire towards us, they fired tear gas, they killed and wounded our colleagues. We were ready for talks but they attacked us. God willing, we will continue our protest and will do our rally as per plan, even if they cut off our heads.”
4. Various exteriors of accident and emergency department of Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar
5. Various of wounded man being wheeled toward area for treatment
STORYLINE:
Police clashed with supporters of a banned organisation advocating for the rights of the Pashtun ethnic group in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, deploying tear gas and batons in a bid to disperse hundreds of protesters.
The clashes followed an announcement from Pakistani authorities this week that they were banning the Pashtun Protection Movement after concluding that it supports the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on civilians and security forces in recent years.
Authorities barred the group from holding a rally in the restive northwest on charges of working against the interests of Pakistan.
The ban angered the supporters of the group, who clashed with police in Peshawar. Health officials said several injured demonstrators were taken to the hospital, and two of them were in critical condition.
Footage on social media showed police firing in the air and using tear gas and swinging batons to disperse the crowd, which responded by throwing stones at officers. Police say the demonstrators defied the ban on the rallies.
The Pashtun Protection Movement, or PTM, denies it backs the Pakistani Taliban, a separate group from and a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
The group was founded in 2014 after its leaders accused the military and local police of abuses in the war on terror. Since then, the group has waged a campaign to force the military to leave the former tribal regions in the northwest bordering Afghanistan.
The military and the government have denied the allegation from the PTM, saying the operations are carried out only against insurgents. PTM has also repeatedly accused Pakistan’s security forces of illegally detaining its members.
Manzoor Pashteen, who heads the group, said it did not accept the government’s ban on its events and is still determined to hold a peaceful meeting of elders on Friday in Regi, a former militant stronghold in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Amnesty International on Wednesday also asked Pakistan’s government to revoke the ban on PTM.
AP video by Sarfaraz Khan
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