WASHINGTON: Expressing concerns over the alleged human rights violations against the minorities in Pakistan, a US-based Mohajir group has urged all ethnic and religious groups to unite and form a "greater alliance" against the government's discriminatory policies.
Throwing its weight behind the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, the 'Free Karachi ' campaign, launched by Muhajirs in the US to raise awareness about the plight of Muhajirs, said religious minority and ethnic groups in Pakistan were increasingly becoming victims of gross human rights violations perpetrated by the security forces.
Pashtun Tahafuz Movement or PTM is a social movement for Pashtun human rights and is based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), and Balochistan.
The term Muhajir is used to describe the Urdu-speaking immigrants who left India in 1947 and came to Pakistan.
A large chunk of them settled in the Sindh province.
Nadeem Nusrat, spokesperson for the 'Free Karachi ' campaign, urged all ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan to form a "greater alliance" against Pakistani state's inhuman policies in Sindh, Balochistan, KPK, FATA and Gilgit Baltistan.
Strongly condemning the false cases registered against the Pashtun leadership on raising their voice against the discriminatory policies of the Pakistan Army, Nusrat termed the acts as a violation of fundamental rights.
"Thousands have disappeared after being picked up by the Pakistani security forces and their families are living in a state of an unending fear and helplessness with no knowledge of the whereabouts of their kins," Nusrat said.
Just like Naqeebullah Mehsud, thousands of young Pashtuns, Balochs, Mohajirs, Gilgiti and Hazaras have been extrajudicially killed, he claimed.
The policies of the current US administration have given a new zeal to freedom-loving religious and ethnic communities in Pakistan, he said.
Nusrat asserted that Mohajirs were committed to seeing a stable South Asia and they will continue to play their important role in achieving this goal.