Geneva, Sept. 16: Pashtun political activist Fazal Ur Rehman Afridi has accused Pakistan’s military of staging “false flag” operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the guise of counterterrorism while targeting civilians and exploiting the region’s natural resources.
Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Afridi alleged that Pakistani forces were conducting airstrikes using drones and F-16 fighter jets against Pashtun civilians, not militants.
“These operations are an excuse to give militants safe havens, not eliminate them. During the day, they wear uniforms; at night, they turn into Taliban,” he said, claiming the military had reintegrated over 55,000 Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members under a secret agreement.
Afridi asserted that more than 40 drone strikes had failed to kill a single top TTP figure, while civilians bore the brunt of the violence. He accused the Pakistani military of “land theft and economic exploitation,” citing the seizure of 700 km of Chilgoza forests in Waziristan and the extraction of oil, gas, chromite, and rare earth minerals without local consent.
“Selling our mineral wealth to foreign countries without our consent violates both international law and Pakistan’s own constitution,” he said, calling on the international community to investigate the alleged abuses.