Abdullah NangyalAlamzaib MahsudAli WazirArfa SiddiqArif WazirArman LoniBushra GoharFazal KhanGilaman WazirGulalai IsmailHanif PashteenHassan NasirJamal MalyarJamila GilaniManzoor PashteenMir KalamMohsin DawarMulla BehramNadeem AskarNargis Afsheen KhattakSaid AlamSanna EjazWranga Loni Major General Asif Ghafoor The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has held public gatherings and marches at various places, including Bajaur, Bannu, Chaman, Charsadda, Dera Ismail Khan, Islamabad, Karachi, Khyber, Killa Saifullah, Lahore, Loralai, North Waziristan, Peshawar, Quetta, South Waziristan, Swabi, Swat, Tank, Zhob in Pakistan, as well as in several Western countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and the United States.
[28][29] PTM held its first public gathering in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (now part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) on 20 February 2018 at Inayat Kalay in Khaar, Bajaur.
"[2] Manzoor Pashteen expressed his regret about the failure of Pakistan's law enforcement agencies despite the promise by the government to arrest Rao Anwar, who was involved in the alleged extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud.
"[2] On 23 March 2018 (Pakistan National Day), PTM organized a public gathering in Wanna, the capital city of South Waziristan.
PTM supporters protested against the arrests in front of press clubs in Peshawar, Quetta, Swat, Swabi, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Zhob, Loralai, Killa Saifullah, Ziarat, Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, and other cities.
[42] This act of administration was sharply criticized by public as well as notable politicians of country like Maryam Nawaz, Pervaiz Rashid, and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
[43] Two days after this successful gathering, Corps Commander Peshawar Lt General Nazir Ahmed declared that PTM demands are genuine and military is ready for talks.
[7][51] On 15 July 2018, a grand public gathering was organized by PTM at Haq Nawaz Park, Dera Ismail Khan in which thousands of people participated.
During the gathering, PTM reiterated their main demands, and condemned the release of Rao Anwar, the prime suspect in the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud.
"[52] He added that despite producing surplus electricity through Tarbela Dam and Ghazi-Barotha Hydropower Project, the people of Swabi District and the adjacent areas still suffer from long hours of power outages.
He demanded that the incentives for the Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate in Swabi should be restored, because it was established to provide an alternative livelihood source to the farmers cultivating opium poppy.
[57] PTM protested for the immediate recovery of Tahir Dawar, a police officer and Pashto poet who had been abducted from the capital Islamabad on 26 October and missing for two days.
Noor Islam Dawar, a PTM activist, asked the protesters during his speech at the gathering: "Is this the reward for Tahir's honesty, bravery, and professionalism: to be kidnapped?
"[58] However, Tahir was never recovered alive and his dead body was later found by the locals in the Dur Baba District of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, eighteen days after disappearance.
Alamzaib Mahsud, a PTM activist instrumental in gathering data on missing persons and landmines victims in the Pashtun tribal districts, was detained by the police on 21 January for taking part in the demonstration in Karachi.
[67] In the video, which went viral on social media, Hayat said that his father and brother might not be freed, but he requested the security forces to stop the unwanted visits when he was the only male along with the women at his house.
[13] On 27 January, a six-member female delegation from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the former lawmakers Bushra Gohar and Jamila Gilani, visited Khaisor to interview the women of the village about the incident.
The visiting women were particularly struck by the story of Noorani Bibi, an illiterate old woman from Khaisor who had recorded each time the security forces raided her house while no men were at home by drawing 25 lines on a sheet of paper.
"Many women told us that if their husbands or other male relatives are involved or suspected of any wrongdoing, the security forces can detain and investigate them, but they should not barge into our houses," Jamila said.
Ali Wazir, who represents South Waziristan in the National Assembly of Pakistan and is one of the leaders of PTM, said during the gathering: "The Pashtuns have suffered a lot from terrorism.
The participants chanted slogans against terrorism and demanded punishment for the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Attaur Rehman, who had allegedly extrajudicially killed the PTM leader Arman Loni in the previous month in Loralai.
In Angur Ada, the participants condoled and protested for the eight Kabulkhel Wazir tribesmen who had been killed on the evening of 9 March in the Rakha village of Barmal District by an Afghan pro-government armed group supported by international military forces.
[72] The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan took notice of the Barmal killings and found out that the search operation was originally against the Taliban but resulted in civilian casualties, including children.
Pashteen's arrest drew widespread condemnation throughout the world, including by the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.
[20] On 1 March 2020, PTM held a public gathering at Municipal Park, Charsadda, during which Manzoor Pashteen welcomed the 2020 Afghan peace agreement which was signed on 29 February between the United States and the Taliban in Qatar.
[21] Talking about Ehsanullah Ehsan, the former spokesman of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan who escaped from the custody of Pakistani Agencies in early February 2020, Pashteen said "PTM would never forgive the killers of Pashtuns’ children."
He asked: "What will the Pakistani state respond when the parents of the victims of 2014 Peshawar school massacre question them who was Ehsanullah Ehsan and why was he kept as a guest by the Pakistan army?"