The leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, Manzoor Pashteen, expressed concern on Thursday, 23 Mizan, at a conference of The Hague Justice Dialogue over military operations, forced displacement, targeted killings, enforced disappearances and civilian casualties caused by landmines in various parts of Pakhtunkhwa.

 The leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen, said at The Hague Justice Dialogue that the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies create, fund and train armed groups in Pakhtunkhwa, and then forcibly displace people under the pretext of counterterrorism operations. During Pashteen’s speech, representatives of Pakistan, diplomat Asif Durrani and Pakistan’s ambassador to Netherlands walked out of the conference. However, as they left the conference, they faced angry looks and remarks from the representatives of other countries. 

The leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, Manzoor Pashteen, expressed concern on Thursday, 23 Mizan, at a conference of The Hague Justice Dialogue over military operations, forced displacement, targeted killings, enforced disappearances and civilian casualties caused by landmines in various parts of Pakhtunkhwa. He called on the international community, United Nations human rights bodies, the International Criminal Court and the European Union to conduct urgent investigations into these incidents.

In his recorded speech, Manzoor Pashteen said that millions of residents of Pakhtunkhwa had suffered greatly because of the war over the past 23 years. According to him, targeted killings, enforced disappearances, military operations and forced displacement continue in various parts of the region.

Pashteen said that the Pakistani military is displacing residents from mineral-rich areas of Pashtunkhwa under the pretext of counterterrorism operations. He added that terrorist groups had been created, funded and trained by the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies.

He added, “The truth is that every terrorist group in Pakhtunkhwa is created, funded and trained by the Pakistani military and Pakistani intelligence agencies. Senior Pakistani military officials, such as Pakistan Army chief General Pervez Musharraf, intelligence agency chief General Hamid Gul, Colonel Imam, General Abdul Qadir Baloch and many others, have openly admitted in live television interviews that these terrorist groups were created by their own army.”

According to Pashteen, they first destabilise mineral-rich areas of Pakhtunkhwa by creating insecurity and chaos through their proxy terrorist groups. They then launch military operations under the pretext of fighting terrorism and use these operations to drive the original local residents out of areas rich in minerals and precious metals.

He said, “Since 2004, the military has conducted dozens of large-scale military operations and thousands of small-scale targeted operations, but it has not brought even a single sign of peace to any part of Pakhtunkhwa.”

According to Pashteen, dozens of major military operations and thousands of targeted operations have taken place in Pakhtunkhwa since 2004, but they have failed to bring peace and security to the people of the region.

Manzoor Pashteen also said that military operations had destroyed people’s homes, markets and orchards, and that when displaced people attempted to return to their homes, they faced landmines, security checkpoints and surveillance.

He added that hundreds of incidents involving landmine explosions had been recorded. According to Pashteen, 1,250 civilians had been killed and another 278 permanently disabled in these explosions.

According to Pashteen, over the past approximately two decades, 76,000 Pashtun civilians had been killed, 6,700 Pashtuns remained missing, and 250,000 houses and 35,000 shops had been destroyed. He also noted that documents, evidence and eyewitnesses were available to support these figures.

The leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement said that the PTM had emerged as a peaceful movement to raise its voice against targeted killings, enforced disappearances, landmines and the plundering of natural resources.

However, according to him, the movement’s peaceful demands had been met with repression, media blackouts, negative propaganda, judicial pressure and the arrest of activists. He also mentioned the imprisonment and disappearance of several movement members and called for their release.

Pashteen referred to the incidents in Wana on 3 June 2018, Khar Qamar on 26 May 2019, and Khyber on 8 October 2024. He said that peaceful protesters had been shot at during these incidents.

He also said that residents of the Tirah Valley in Khyber, Central Kurram and the Shawal areas of North Waziristan continued to face forced displacement.

According to Pashteen, more than 300 attacks carried out by Pakistani drones and fighter jets in 2025 and 2026 alone had killed 800 civilians, including 72 children under the age of one.

Pashteen said that the Pakistani military and political officials had failed to properly use the international assistance they had received for the war against terrorism and reconstruction, while benefiting from the plundering of the region’s natural resources.

Pashteen said in his speech that the Pakistani officials are ultimate global sycophants, on one hand they’re killing Thausands of civilians, thousands of enforced dissappearences, mass displacements, killings women and children’s but on the other hand they will praise American president and other western leaders to ensure more funds, trade and remain blind to their atrocious crimes.

Manzoor Pashteen called on the international community, the International Criminal Court, United Nations human rights bodies and the European Union to conduct urgent investigations into the situation in Pakhtunkhwa. He urged the European Union to suspend its assistance to Pakistan, particularly the benefits associated with the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP).

He also called for the release of imprisoned members of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement and urged the international community to pay attention to the situation of Pashtun and Baloch rights activists.

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