Videos: Massive anti-government protests in Pakistan over Peshawar bombing

Thousands of people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in north-west Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan are protesting daily against Islamabad’s failure to protect them from terrorism. Local people want the government to end militancy, reduce crime and stop the incessant violence.

The mass protests began after the Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) attacked a Peshawar mosque in the high security Police Lines, killing 101, mostly policemen on January 30. The TTP had in November 2022 given a call to its followers to stage attacks across the country after the Pakistani military carried out non-stop operations against the group on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Many of the protestors are relatives of the policemen killed in the attack along with civil society members and political parties. For many local people and tribals, the violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a reminder of their time around 2010 when terrorism was at its peak, culminating in the TTP attack on the Army Public School (APS) that killed 151 including 134 children.

The protestors are blaming the Pakistan government for holding talks with the TTP in 2021, after the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, and then allowing heavily-armed TTP militants to settle down in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leading to spiralling violence since then.

People are also complaining about the disruption of the internet since the Peshawar mosque bombing leading to inconvenience in their daily living. Recalling the past decade of terrorism, the protestors complained that terror fights left the local economy in tatters and displaced thousands of families.

The TTP wants the Pashtun areas of Pakistan to merge with Pashtun areas in Afghanistan – a demand which Pakistan opposes tooth and nail. The TTP has also been destroying the border fence that Pakistan has been building assiduously over the last many years in a bid to unite the community across the border. The TTP also wants better implementation of the Muslim law in Pakistan as is prevalent in  Afghanistan under the Taliban rule.

The policemen in the region had immediately launched a protest after the ghastly suicide bomb attack that killed their colleagues. Many complained that the bombing was a direct result of Pakistani military and intelligence agencies supporting various terror outfits in pursuit of strategic objectives against neighbouring countries.

Earlier in January different regions of Pakistan witnessed mass rallies due to massive power cuts, soaring food shortage and rising prices. In some of the rallies, people even demanded that Kashmir be merged with India so that they could lead better lives and not have to deal with unending poverty, militancy and spiraling taxes.

Also Read: How the TTP bleeds Pakistan with a thousand cuts