Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [Pakistan] January 24 : The Pashtun National Jirga (PNJ) has alleged that thousands of Pashtun families are being forcibly evicted from their ancestral homeland in Pakistan's Tirah Valley, calling the move a brutal and inhumane action carried out under the pretext of a military operation.
In a post shared on X, the PNJ said families were given just three days' notice to leave their homes and were forced to flee through severe winter conditions, including snowstorms and dangerous mountain routes riddled with cracks. According to the PNJ, entire communities were compelled to abandon their land without any proper planning, facilities, or consent.
Describing the situation as more than a security exercise, the PNJ termed the operation a manifestation of a "colonial mindset" within the Pakistani state. The group alleged that narratives of "national security" and "development", rooted in British-era imperial policies, are once again being used to justify the displacement of indigenous populations while ignoring their ancestral rights, collective identity, and human dignity.
The PNJ further claimed that the forced displacement has resulted in a humanitarian tragedy, with families reportedly trapped in blizzards and extreme cold. The post alleged that innocent children and elderly people have died due to pneumonia and freezing conditions, with their suffering standing as evidence of what the group described as colonial-style governance being imposed on citizens by a modern state.
"The breaths slowly freezing and being buried in the snow of Tirah Valley are, in reality, writing a new and horrifying chapter in the long story of the exploitation and displacement of the Pashtun nation," the PNJ stated in its post.
Earlier, the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) held a peaceful demonstration along with local human rights activists against Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the Pakistani Army, involved in the brutal killings and enforced disappearances of Pashtun people.