On July 7, Pashtun poet and human rights activist Giraman Wazir was shot in Islamabad. Repercussions of his death are still reverberating from his hometown in North Waziristan. Wazir, also known as Hazrat Naeem, was a key leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement and a close friend of its leader Manzoor Pashteen.
While poets are not usually considered a threat to national security, Giraman was allegedly held and tortured by Pakistani security agencies for eight months before being released in January 2024 and killed in July 2024. So far, Pakistani authorities have not been able to find his assailants.
PTM supporters believe this was a killing sanctioned by Pakistani security forces. They point out that the government pretended not to have detained Wazir for months earlier this year. PTM members also claim that Wazir’s killers were allowed to fly to the UAE to evade arrest. Mariam Solaimankhil, a PTM supporter and former Afghan parliament member, said, “Giraman has been on the Pakistani security’s ‘exit control list’ since his release from detention, and this restriction meant that Wazir was not transferred to a better medical facility in the Gulf or Europe after he was attacked.”
Why does the PTM worry Pakistan’s security agencies?
Pakistan is a large country (5th largest in the world with 240 million people) but not very large in land area. The size of the country is very important for Pakistan’s defense. There is a strong and long-standing movement in Balochistan province in southwest Pakistan for its separation from Pakistan, which is a major security issue for Pakistan. Balochistan (about 134,000 square miles) accounts for just under half of Pakistan’s total land area but has a small population of about 15 million. The Pakistani military, which is in constant conflict with India, considers it unthinkable to lose Balochistan, and similarly considers the loss of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (about 40,000 square miles) to some kind of independent state or to swear allegiance to Afghanistan.
The PTM’s activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, home to around 41 million people, are seen as a threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty, national unity and security. The cycle of mistreatment of the Pashtun (Pakhtun) people of western Pakistan by its mostly Punjabi leaders has continued for decades. While the PTM is not yet a political movement, it is a powerful social movement that continues to gain supporters both within Pakistan and around the world.
Giraman Wazir used his poetry to point out what the PTM sees as corruption and oppression against the Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the Pakistani government. According to Solaimankhil, “Wazir asked for schools instead of terror camps, hospitals instead of battlefields, and a future where Pashtun children could live free from fear.” PTM supporters believe that the Pakistani army is making their children prey to terrorist organisations operating in the region at Pakistan’s behest, particularly the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani terror networks.
Giraman’s message has reached millions of Pakistanis, enabling the PTM leadership to call for massive rallies and rallies across the country to demand changes in how the Pakistan Army is treated. This ability to command hundreds of thousands of people who are rebelling against the Pakistan Army’s orders is frightening for the security forces.
What happens next?
“The murder of Giraman, a husband, father of five and a brilliant mind, will ignite a wildfire of resistance,” Solaimankir said. She and other PTM supporters believe his death will give rise to countless new activists fighting for “justice and peace” in their state.
When PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen informed Giraman’s mother about her son’s death, she reportedly smiled and promised the entire nation that she would “dedicate her son to the cause.”[that] “He is a son and a brother of all the people of this country and this land is our mother,” he said, adding, “I am ready to sacrifice my life to break the chains of slavery on my people.”
KPK tribes are set to meet on October 11 to decide what to do next collectively in response to decades of violence in KPK. PTM supporters do not believe that Gilman’s death marks the end of resistance to their mistreatment by the Pakistani government.
