Arif Wazir

Personal life and family 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. 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.

Political career 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 19 June 2019, Wazir was arrested by the Deputy Commissioner of South Waziristan, just a month before taking part in the provincial election as independent candidate. On 27 June, the Election Commission of Pakistan observed that this "act of the administration prior to conduct of election was tantamount to obstructing the election campaign," and ordered the district administration to release him within a day. However, Wazir was soon arrested again during a protest in Wanna. On 3 August, Wazir and 29 other PTM activists, who were arrested along with him in Wanna, were transferred to Dera Ismail Khan's central jail. In February 2020, Wazir was released because the authorities could not prove any charges against him.

On 17 April 2020, Wazir was detained by the police in Wanna and accused of making an "anti-Pakistan speech during his visit to Afghanistan" in the previous month. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, however, the allegation of being involved in anti-state activities was "an expedient label for human rights defenders, particularly those associated with the PTM." He was released on bail on 27 April.

2018 assassination attempt On 3 June 2018, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, local Taliban attacked Ali Wazir, Arif Wazir, and other supporters of PTM in Wanna. Ali remained unhurt but Arif, a local journalist Noor Ali Wazir, and dozens of others were injured, while four supporters of PTM were killed in the attack. Many of the injured were taken to hospitals in Dera Ismail Khan.

A local senior journalist, on condition of anonymity, told his sources confirmed that the attack was carried out by the Nazir Group, a faction of Taliban militants which operated in South Waziristan. The dispute between the two parties in Wanna had started on June 2 when a pro-government militant leader, Ainullah Wazir, took away Pashteen hats from PTM activists by force and set the hats on fire. To condemn the act of the militant leader, Ali Wazir, cousin of Arif Wazir, announced that a protest sit-in was to be held by PTM in Wanna from June 4. In response, the militants with guns went to Ali Wazir's home and asked him to either leave the area or leave PTM. When Wazir refused to comply with their demand, they attacked Wanna's Mirzalam Market and a nearby petrol pump owned by Wazir's family. However, a large number of unarmed PTM supporters gathered at the market to support Wazir and resisted the militants, after which the militants indiscriminately opened fire on the PTM supporters. The PTM leader Mohsin Dawar claimed that when the militants fled after the attack was repulsed, security forces which reached the area also opened fire on the unarmed PTM supporters, injuring many of them. Mohsin Dawar added: “Even though the military imposed a curfew in the area, but it has not discouraged the people from coming out and expressing their support for the PTM.” PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen also claimed that the attackers were backed by the Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies. Following a protest call by Pashteen, PTM held protest rallies in several cities, including Peshawar, Quetta, and Islamabad, to condemn the attack on Wazir.

On June 4, Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor claimed at a press conference that a firefight had taken place between PTM supporters and a government sponsored peace committee, members of which were reported to be former members of the Taliban.

Assassination On 1 May 2020, only four days after his release from jail, Wazir was driving home when gunmen from another vehicle started following him. As he slowed down his car because of a speed breaker, the gunmen started firing at him. which was his 38th birthday. His body was carried to his native village Ghawa Khwa in Wanna, where he was buried after the Islamic funeral prayer for him on 3 May, which was attended by tens of thousands of mourners despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responsibility The Pakistani government was silent on the incident. The police in Wanna registered a case against unknown assailants, but no government official offered condolences to Wazir's family.

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.

The inspector-general (IG) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, Sanaullah Abbasi, said that Wazir was assassinated because of his recent interview to a private Afghan channel in Kabul. In March 2020, Arif and several other PTM leaders, including Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, had traveled to Kabul as they were invited by the Government of Afghanistan to participate at President Ashraf Ghani’s oath-taking ceremony at the Arg presidential palace.