Pashtun leader Bilal Orakzai's disappearance after active protest sparks outrage

The Hague [Netherlands] August 28 (ANI): The enforced disappearance of Bilal Orakzai, a elder Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) person from Peshawar, has sparked increasing outrage among rights defenders and diaspora communities.

According to a station shared by PTM Holland, Orakzai was arrested connected July 31, 2025, during a peaceful protestation extracurricular the Peshawar Press Club and has not been seen since.

According to the station shared by PTM Holland, Orakzai, known for his tireless advocacy arsenic a quality rights defender and progressive subordinate of the Pashtun Salvation Movement, had joined the objection to protestation the Pakistani Army's latest cognition successful Bajaur.

Despite being taken into custody by Peshawar police, helium has not been presented earlier immoderate court. His household and colleagues stay successful the acheronian astir his whereabouts, fuelling fears of yet different lawsuit of enforced disappearance targeting nonviolent activists.

The station besides emphasised that Orakzai was not blameworthy of immoderate crime. Standing up for justness and the rights of marginalised communities affected his beingness adversely. The radical underscored that the Pashtun Salvation Movement is committed to peaceful struggle, advocating for the sovereignty of the Pashtun radical and defending the quality rights of Afghans and different minorities successful Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistani authorities person blacklisted the movement, labelling its actions arsenic violations of quality rights, a assertion rejected by PTM and planetary rights advocates. Such measures correspond an alarming signifier of criminalising peaceful dissent, silencing voices of resistance, and denying basal freedoms enshrined nether planetary law.

The enforced disappearance of Bilal Orakzai highlights the deepening situation of civic freedoms successful Pakistan. Activists reason that detaining peaceful protestors without owed process is simply a blatant usurpation of cardinal rights, eroding spot betwixt citizens and the state. The station further warned that unless the planetary assemblage speaks up, galore much quality rights defenders successful Pakistan volition proceed to beryllium targeted nether the aforesaid rhythm of repression. (ANI)