Arif Wazir

Arif Wazir (محمد عارف افغان وزیر; 2 May 1982 – 2 May 2020) was a Pakistani politician, activist, and one of the leaders of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM).

He was a member of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) and its president for the South Waziristan chapter.

He also headed the FATA Political Alliance South Waziristan, which campaigned for the rights of the people of former Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Wazir's family was long active in the Pashtun nationalist movement and opposed to the Talibanization of the former tribal areas, earning them the militants' enmity.

His father (Saadullah Jan), two brothers (Ibrahim and Ishaq), two uncles (Malik Mirzalam and Feroz Khan) and two cousins (Tariq and Farooq Wazir) were all murdered in targeted killings, and he also survived assassination attempts himself.

He succumbed to his injuries on the next day after being shifted to Islamabad for emergency surgery, becoming the 18th male member of his extended family to be killed by militants since 2003.

Amnesty International called on Pakistani officials to vigorously investigate the attack.

The inspector-general of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Police, Sanaullah Abbasi, said that Wazir was murdered because of his recent interview in Kabul, Afghanistan.

A post from the verified Twitter account of the Governor of Punjab, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, blamed the Indian intelligence agency RAW and the Afghan intelligence agency NDS for the attack.

However, when a reporter requested the information minister Shibli Faraz to share progress about finding the murderers, he declined, saying "I don't know the details" of Wazir's assassination.

PTM claimed that “state-sponsored militants” and the so-called "good Taliban" were responsible for the assassination, and held widespread protests during which several of its activists, including Gilaman and Nadeem Askar, were arrested by Pakistani authorities.

Wazir was survived by a widow and five children.

On 14 March 2022, the Pashtun National Jirga in Bannu demanded that Wazir's death be investigated by a credible judicial commission headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa, and that the report be made public.

Arif belonged to the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe of the Pashtuns.

His family, which had been part of the Pashtun nationalist movement for many years, earned the enmity of the militants because of the family's anti-Taliban stance.

In July 2005, Arif's father Saadullah Jan, his brother Ibrahim, his uncle Malik Mirzalam (father of Ali Wazir), his cousin Tariq (brother of Ali Wazir), and another uncle Feroz Khan, were assassinated by militants in a single ambush near their home in Wanna.

Ishaq Wazir, who was another brother of Arif, and Faruk Wazir, the elder brother of Ali Wazir, were shot dead in other isolated targeted killings.

However, the Pakistani government did not investigate the killings and made no arrests.

Because of losing his elders and adult family members, Arif was forced to quit his studies and become the man of the house.

The militants also ruined the businesses owned by his family.

Their gas stations were demolished, their tube wells were filled with dirt, and their apple and peach orchards were sprayed with poisonous chemicals.

In 2016, the government demolished his family's market in Wanna with dynamite under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, which authorized collective punishment, after a bomb killed an army officer.

In an opinion article for The Diplomat, Ali Wazir discussed the incident: "While local officials admitted to me that it was an accident and we were not to blame, they nevertheless destroyed our livelihoods under the Frontier Crimes Regulation."

Authorities also prevented the locals of Wanna from collecting donations to help Arif Wazir's family.

“They were told it would set an unacceptable precedent because the government cannot let anyone help those it punishes,” wrote Ali Wazir.

In April 2017, Wazir was arrested for protesting against the unavailability of Internet and mobile services in Wanna.

He spent a significant amount of time in jail in the last few years of his life, especially after joining the PTM in March 2018.

On 23 March 2018, Wazir declared his full support for Manzoor Pashteen and PTM during a rally in Wanna.

"The tribal Pashtuns abandoned homes to enable the army to take action against terrorists, but now the tribals are only treated as strangers on military check posts and are not even allowed to own homes and properties," said Wazir.

Later in the day, he led the rally to the home of slain Naqeebullah Mehsud in Makeen, South Waziristan.

On 24 March, Wazir was detained by the authorities under the Frontier Crimes Regulation for organizing the rally.

Three other PTM activists were also arrested.

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.

In the 2019 Khyber Pukhtunkhwa provincial election, Wazir contested the constituency PK-114 (South Waziristan-II) as an independent candidate.

However, in the month before the election, he was arrested by the administration of South Waziristan along with another Pashtun independent candidate, Muhammad Iqbal Masud, who was contesting the constituency PK-113 (South Waziristan-I).

Similarly, another PK-113 independent candidate, PTM leader Jamal Malyar, was put under house arrest because of which he could not run an election campaign.

The Election Commission of Pakistan ordered the administration to immediately release Wazir and Iqbal Masud, declaring that their arrests were "tantamount to pre-poll rigging" in favor of other candidates.

Arif Wazir was still able to garner 10,272 votes in the election, losing to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Naseerullah Wazir by a margin of 842 votes, who got 11,114 votes.

Arif's supporters claimed that the results were rigged in favor of the PTI candidate.

On 1 May 2020, as he was driving home in Wanna just before the evening's fast-breaking meal, he was critically injured when gunmen from another vehicle shot him three times in the head, neck, and arm near his home.