Pak's 'Pashtun Spring' pits human rights demands against war and terror

They protestors demanding an end to what they call state-imposed terrorism and militarism justified by War on Terror rhetoric

After years of tension and exclusion, it seems Pakistan’s Pashtuns – the country’s second-largest ethnic group – have had enough. In January, a large crowd began protesting after 27-year-old shopkeeper Naqibullah Mehsud was shot dead by a police officer in Karachi.

The protesters marched from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to Islamabad, where they staged a sit-in protest in front of the National Press Club. Although the sit-in has ended, protests have erupted elsewhere in Pakistan, and the movement has variously become known as the Pashtun Long March and the Pashtun