The people of Waziristan, just like Chaman residents, have rejected the condition of visa and passport for entry into Afghanistan, Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) chairman said on Tuesday.
PTM chairman Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen made these remarks at a gathering attended by tens of thousands of protesting people in the Chaman town of Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
Thousands of Chaman residents have been protesting for 39 days against Pakistan’s decision to make the visa and passport mandatory for crossing into Afghanistan.
The residents of the town say they have travelled through the Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing for decades without visa and passport, having relatives and doing businesses on both sides of the Durand Line.
Pashteen told the protestors the people of Chaman did not accept the visa and passport condition for entry into Afghanistan.
The stance of Chaman inhabitants had become the demand of the entire Pashtun nation, the outspoken PTM chief added.
Some people were staging a similar sit-in the Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan district, making the same demand, he said.
Life had been made miserable for Pashtuns in the garb of a crackdown on undocumented Afghan refugees in Sindh and Punjab provinces, Pashteen alleged.
The PTM chief asked the government of Pakistan, what message it was sending to Pashtuns through harassment, detentions and deportations.
The Pashtun nation rejected the travel conditions on all crossings such Torkham, Angoor Adda, Ghulam Khan, Dand-i-Patan and Nawa Pass, he maintained.
Closing these crossings would divide thousands of families from each other and strangulate Pashtuns economically, Pashteen feared.
The government of Pakistan has forcibly evicted hundreds thousands of undocumented Afghan refugees since November 1 and made visa and passport mandatory for crossing into Afghanistan via the Friendship Gate.
aw/mud
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