A tragic and brutal incident unfolded in Wadi Tirah Maidan (Khyber), where a mortar shell struck children returning home from school, leaving one young student martyred and five others seriously injured. These were students of Government Primary School Hashim Khan Clay Bar Qambarkhel, merely heading home after a school holiday—hardly “security threats.” Yet, the tragedy raises an unsettling question: has the Punjabi Pakistan Army declared war on Pashtuns?
For the Pashtun community, such incidents are becoming disturbingly routine. Regions like South and North Waziristan are subjected to an increasingly oppressive military presence, with countless checkpoints and soldiers patrolling their lands. The Pak Army has intensified its presence in these areas, allegedly to counter security threats, but the reality is far from these claims. In this highly militarized zone, Pashtuns face a targeted campaign of violence and repression, aimed at controlling this resource-rich region. What the Pak Army frames as “security operations” has translated into the systematic suffering and displacement of Pashtuns.The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has been vocal about these atrocities, but even their reports fall short of capturing the full extent of the Army’s brutality. The crackdown in Pashtun lands is driven by a colonial mindset—an attempt by the Punjabi-Pak military to dominate and marginalized Pashtun communities.
The Army’s so-called security strategy has become a cover for ethnic violence, with innocent children, like those martyred and wounded in Wadi Tirah, paying the ultimate price. The Paki establishment has turned its forces against them, effectively treating Pashtuns as enemies within their own homeland.