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Pashtun political activist Fazal Ur Rehman Afridi has expressed serious concerns about what he termed continuous human rights abuses, state-sponsored militancy, and natural resource exploitation in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
Addressing the international community, Afridi accused the Pakistani military of carrying out false flag military operations under the pretence of combating terrorism, while targeting innocent civilians, particularly Pashtun women and children. "We have come to the United Nations Human Rights Council today to make the world aware of the continued military action in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Innocent Pashtun civilians are being targeted, not only by drone attacks, but by F-16 fighter aircraft used by the Pakistani military," Afridi said. According to Afridi, the Pakistani state has allegedly reintegrated over 55,000 members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and their families into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under a secret agreement, while publicly claiming to conduct operations against them. We want the world to know that these operations are staged. The truth is, the TTP and the Pakistani army are no different from one another. During the day, they wear uniforms; at night, they turn into Taliban. The operations are an excuse to provide militants with safe havens, not kill them," he stated. Afridi emphasised that over 40 drone attacks have been carried out in the region without a single high-profile TTP figure being killed. Instead, he said, civilians continue to bear the brunt of these attacks. "The use of F-16s and drones is not targeting terrorists- it's targeting our people. These strikes are designed to clear space for terrorist training camps, which are later used to export terrorism across the region," he alleged. In addition to security concerns, Afridi also accused the Pakistani military of systematic exploitation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's natural resources. He claimed that vast tracts of land have been seized for military and commercial projects, including cantonments, housing societies, and resorts. "In Waziristan alone, 700 kilometres of Chilgoza forests have been captured and sold to foreign buyers, with the revenue bypassing the national treasury. This is land theft and economic exploitation," he said. Afridi also condemned the alleged extraction and foreign sale of oil, gas, electricity, chromite, and rare earth minerals from the region, particularly a reported agreement with the United States, which he said was made without the consent of the indigenous Pashtun population. "Selling our mineral wealth to foreign countries without our consent violates both international law and Pakistan's own constitution," he argued. (ANI)
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