Pakistan army critic Manzoor Pashteen missing: Did intel agencies abduct him?

A prominent rights activist and chief of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) Manzoor Pashteen has been allegedly abducted by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies a day after he was arrested by the police for addressing a protest to demand free cross-border movement with Afghanistan. The 29-year-old activist was arrested on Monday when he was on his way to Turbat from border town of Chaman in Balochistan province. Chaman Deputy Commissioner Raja Athar Abbas said Pashteen was arrested for firing on police vehicles. However, the PTM has denied the charge. Abbas had said Levies and police personnel had arrested Pashteen from the Gudhamo area. “Police were fired at from Pashteen’s car on Mall Road,” he said, adding that a case had also been registered against the PTM leader. Abbas further said the PTM chief was arrested in connection with the incident. He had said Pashteen would later be presented before a district magistrate. Since his arrest, the PTM head has not been produced in court. Senior PTM member Zubair Shah said Pashteen was brought to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday and from there, he was “forcibly” abducted by officials of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies which is controlled by the country’s military. Former Member of Pakistan National Assembly Mohsin Dawar said: “It is very concerning that Manzoor Pashteen has not been produced in any court after being arrested on the 4 of December. He remains forcibly disappeared. The state is violating the law openly and brazenly. We demand the immediate production of Manzoor in court.”

A post shared on X from Manzoor Pashteen handle on Wednesday read: “If PTM chief can be abducted and dislocated than how the ordinary people will be treated? Enforced disappearance of Manzoor Pashteen is a question mark for all political people.”

However, PTM member Zubair Shah said Pashteen was brought to a police station in Dera Ismail Khan city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday morning and from there he was taken away by unknown men. “We don’t know where he is any more. Nobody is giving us any police report to show why was he arrested and now he has been picked up by men in civilian clothing, who we believe are part of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies," a report by Al Jazeera quoted Shah as saying. The report also quoted Khubab Khan, a police officer in Dera Ismail Khan, denying that Pashteen was brought to his station. Former Pakistan Senate Member Afrasiab Khattak said Pashteen’s disappearance is yet another effort at pushing the non-violent Pashtun youth to violence. “Baloch youth has already been pushed to the wall. Pol parties aren’t uttering a word. Lawlessness will lead to the cycle of anarchy/fascism,” he said. Soon after Pashteen’s arrest on Monday, Caretaker Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai said the PTM is an “anti-Pakistan organisation”. Achakzai said Pashteen had been banned from entering Balochistan and the same was notified three times by the interior ministry. “He still came to Chaman and staged a rally without the government’s permission. They should have left but he sought refuge in a village […]. He was hiding there with his guards,” the Caretaker Balochistan Information Minster said. “We have no information about any firing. [He] has his own guards, firing can also happen because of them,” Achakzai added. Why was Manzoor Pashteen in Balochistan? The PTM chief was in Chaman to attend a large demonstration demanding the reversal of a government policy which makes it mandatory for Afghan nationals to carry a Pakistani visa to enter the country. The policy came on the back of Pakistan declaring nearly 1.7 million refugees and migrants in the country “illegal” and ordering their immediate expulsion. Founded in 2014, PTM is known for its strong criticism of Pakistan’s powerful military for its role in alleged enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of rights activists and ethnic leaders. PTM advocates for the rights of ethnic Pashtuns affected by Pakistan’s war against the Taliban and its local affiliate, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). With inputs from agencies