Pakistan bans ethnic organisation for siding with terrorists

Pakistani authorities have banned an organisation supposedly advocating for the "rights of the Pashtun ethnic group" and barred it from holding a rally in the restive northwest on charges of working against the interests of the country, officials said.

Pakistan issued a notice this week banning the Pashtun Protection Movement after concluding that it supports the terrorist group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who have stepped up attacks on civilians and security forces in recent years, according to Information Minister Attaullah Tatar.

TTP, also known as the Pakistan Taliban, is an alliance of formerly disparate terrorist groups that came together in 2007 following Pakistan military operations against terrorists in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The Pashtun Protection Movement, or PTM, was founded in 2014 after its leaders accused the military and local police of abuses in the war on terror. Since then, the group has waged a campaign to force the military to leave the former tribal regions in the northwest bordering Afghanistan.

The military and the government have denied the allegation from PTM, saying the operations are carried out only against terrorists.