The Pakistani government on Sunday banned an ethnic Pashtun rights movement that has long criticized the country’s powerful military, the latest sign of a renewed crackdown on public dissent and political opposition.
The Interior Ministry said that the movement — known as P.T.M., from words that translate as Pashtun Protection Movement — has been included on the list of proscribed organizations under the country’s antiterrorism laws, because of its involvement in “certain activities that are prejudicial to the peace and security of the country.”
It provided no further details. The ban, which takes effect immediately, includes the freezing of P.T.M. assets and shuttering of its offices.
While much of the government clampdown on dissent has targeted supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, analysts say the move to ban P.T.M. suggests that the military — long seen as the invisible hand guiding Pakistan’s politics — is expanding the scope of its efforts to squash dissent and enhance the legitimacy of the coalition government, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. His government came to power earlier this year in general elections marked by allegations of vote rigging.
The government has struggled to tackle the country’s economic woes and security concerns, which have grown since the Taliban’s takeover of neighboring Afghanistan in 2021. Terrorist attacks have surged in parts of the country.
The ban on the P.T.M. was announced just days before it was set to hold a three-day gathering near Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Friday to protest rising violence from militant groups and the threat of a new military operation in Pakistani districts bordering Afghanistan. The P.T.M. and other political parties fear this could lead to a mass displacement, similar to what occurred in 2014 during a military operation in the region.
The P.T.M. has not issued an official statement regarding the ban. Critics and human rights groups said it signals a growing crackdown on dissent in Pakistan.
“This extreme decision was neither transparent nor warranted,” said the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog, in a statement. It said that the P.T.M. has never resorted to violence and always used the framework of the country’s constitution to advocate its cause.
P.T.M.’s chief, Manzoor Pashteen, on Saturday said that more than 200 of the movement’s organizers have been arrested across the province since Thursday. Police uprooted and torched tents at the event site twice this week. “We are victims of terrorism, not terrorists,” said Jan Afridi, a 26-year-old P.T.M. supporter whose family was displaced by military operations in 2014 from a village near the Afghan border.
He said he is confident that people will still attend Friday’s gathering.
Terrorist violence and counterterrorism operations surged by 90 percent in Pakistan in the past three months, resulting in 722 fatalities, according to the Centre for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan — the two Pakistani provinces bordering Afghanistan — accounted for nearly 97 percent of these deaths, the highest percentage in a decade.
On Friday night, six Pakistani soldiers, including a high-ranking officer, were killed in a clash with Islamist militants in North Waziristan, a border region with Afghanistan, the military said.
. The ban on the P.T.M. also comes amid a broader crackdown on supporters of Mr. Khan.
In July, the government announced plans to ban Mr. Khan’s political party, although that has not yet materialized. Last month, in an hourslong raid on the parliament building in Islamabad, police arrested 10 lawmakers belonging to Mr. Khan’s party on charges related to the country’s antiterrorism laws. The government has also moved in recent months to introduce a new firewall to better surveil and control the country’s internet, where Mr. Khan’s supporters are active, according to rights groups.
Mr. Khan has been attempting to hold an anti-government rally in Islamabad since Friday despite an official prohibition on public gatherings in the capital.
Clashes between police and Mr. Khan’s supporters have resulted in one police officer’s death and injuries to over 80 officers since Friday, Mohsin Naqvi, the interior minister, said on Saturday. Police have arrested over 100 of Mr. Khan’s supporters, including his sisters, under antiterrorism laws.
The P.T.M. first gained widespread attention in early 2018 after organizing protests against the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud, an aspiring model popular on social media, by police in the port city of Karachi. Officers were accused of staging a fake shootout to cover up the extrajudicial killings of four people, including Mr. Mehsud.
Authorities claim that the P.T.M.’s rhetoric inflames ethnic tensions and creates a platform for anti-state elements, which the movement denies. Since 2018, many P.T.M. leaders have been arrested on charges such as inciting anti-state sentiments, treason and terrorism, and then released after several months.
Pakistan’s tally of outlawed groups now stands at 81, including transnational jihadi groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, local groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and secessionist insurgents.
“PTM banned, but will ban effects its politics? Answer is No!,” Chaudhary Fawad Hussain, a former federal information minister, wrote on X. “You cannot proscribe ideas with bans, only outfits that use violence should be banned political ideologies cannot be banned.”
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