Pashtun activist blames Pakistan for sheltering dreaded terrorists

Paris [France], March 2 : As Pakistan remains on the 'grey list' of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a Pashtun rights activist has blamed the country for providing shelter to dreaded terrorists, including the Taliban.
Fazal-ur Rehman Afridi, a member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), France said the tribal areas in Pakistan continue to remain safe haven for the terrorists and Pakistani security forces have failed to act against these outfits.
He said, "If you actually look at the situation in Pakistan, particularly in ex-FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), the tribal areas adjacent to Afghanistan there seems to be increased Taliban and terrorist activities in this region. Not only in FATA, but even in the settled areas like in the important cities Swabi, Mardan, Peshawar, Swat and even in Quetta, there seem to be Taliban activities. They are organising huge gatherings and collecting funds openly and the state is not responding against these activities."
Afridi added, "It seems that either the state is responsible for these activities or there is no state in Pakistan. So, in both cases it has to respond to the international community."
Last month, the FATF decided to keep Pakistan on the 'grey list' till June for failing to act on six key parameters.
Prior to the decision, the global agency had held a three-day meeting to review the progress made by Islamabad in terms of measures taken by its government against money-laundering and terrorist financing.
Afridi said, "Whenever there are important meetings of important organisations like the United Nations and FATF, these terrorists and terrorist organisations are banned but the moment these meetings are finished, then again these terrorist organisations resurface".
Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist Ehsanullah Ehsan, whose group nine years ago, shot and badly wounded Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, has allegedly threatened a second attempt on her life, tweeting that next time, "there would be no mistake".
The threat prompted Malala to tweet herself, asking both the military and Prime Minister Imran Khan to explain how her alleged shooter, Ehsan, had escaped from government custody.
"Ehsanullah Ehsan is the same case. He threatened openly on Twitter to Malala and the state of Pakistan actually, in the beginning, rejected the claim that it was a fake Twitter account, but it was a genuine Twitter account. So, the state of Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism, it is training Taliban and it seems that in the coming days it wants to destabilise Afghanistan again. And its partnering with other states like Iran, Turkey and Russia in this regard to further destabilise the region and not only Afghanistan," said PTM member.
"Pakistan Army is very huge and its expenses are not covered by its present economy. So, in that context, it wants to conquer other countries or create instability in the region so that it can earn dollars from the international community as it has done in the so-called war on terror in the last 20 years in which they did not kill the Taliban and other terrorist groups, but they supported them to earn dollars from the international community and instead they killed innocent civilians. Thousands of Pashtuns, Baloch and Sindhis were forcibly disappeared, extra-judicially killed and tortured," he added.
"So, it is the responsibility of the international community to take notice of it as Manzoor Pashteen (PTM leader) has said openly that if you fund Pakistan, you are indirectly funding terrorism. So, it should be clear to the whole world that action should be taken. Now, even the women are being targeted by terrorists, supported by the Pakistani state. And you have heard of four women workers of an NGO who were killed by these terrorists in North Waziristan region of Pakistan", said the Paris-based Pashtun activist adding that it is the responsibility of UN, FATF, European Union and the US to take action against these terrorist activities of Pakistan.