Afghanistan Times
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Former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) senior member and spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan in his new remarks revealed he was assigned and asked by Pakistani military in recent years to assassinate Pashtun intellectuals and elites, including political leaders, as part of a State-run strategy emplaced now for years against Pashtun people in tribal areas.
Ehsan claimed after his last arrest, he was freed by Pakistani military and was given an office in Peshawar with financial and technical support.
He said he was forced to lead an assassination squad in Peshawar and in return he was promised all claims and criminal records against him will be vanished and cleared by the government, while he will be also receiving financial assistances as well.
He explained Pakistani military given him a “hit list” of several people who were on the top to be assassinated.
“Most of the persons” in the list were Pashtun tribal elders, Pashtun scholars, intellectuals, civil society activists, writers and even a number of active Pashtun journalists.
His claims have not been independently verified so far.
He says this was the main reason he fled from the captivity of Pakistani military and did not accept the offer to assassinate key Pashtun intellectuals and elites.
Target killing, forced disappearance and kidnapping are the common security incidents in Pashtun and Baloch populated areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan.
The years long series of such systematic acts against Pashtuns and Baluch people have given birth to several civil movements including the popular Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) to stand against such miseries.
Such problems have also forced hundreds of thousands people to live in exile in the past several decades.
