The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has moved far beyond the domestic grievances around which it initially built its political profile. After being formally proscribed by Pakistan in October 2024 under Section 11-B of the Anti-Terrorism Act, PTM has continued to operate an increasingly international campaign.
Now, with PTM preparing to demonstrate outside the United Nations during the 81st General Assembly, PTM UK Deputy Chief Executive Shahid Kakar has received around £11,000 from an Indian-linked account on March 8, 2026, around the time of preparations for a London protest against Pakistan.
Behind the language of human rights lies a clear record of foreign financing by India, contacts with Taliban-linked circles, endorsements from TTP leadership, and an international campaign that repeatedly places Pakistan in the dock while overlooking the terrorists who have devastated Pashtun communities themselves.
The £11,000 India Payment and PTM’s Foreign Backing
PTM’s planned demonstration should not be viewed as an isolated protest. The organisation has previously taken its campaign to international forums and Western capitals, seeking to portray Pakistan as an oppressive state before foreign audiences.
A question is asked who is financing, coordinating and politically benefiting from these overseas campaigns.
Financial records against PTM reportedly show that Kakar received approximately £11,000 from an Indian account on March 8, 2026, in connection with preparations for a London protest against Pakistan. It raise serious questions about the organisation’s repeated portrayal of its overseas demonstrations as entirely organic grassroots mobilisation.
The issue is larger than one transaction. Foreign money is being channelled into individuals involved in organising anti-Pakistan campaigns, then PTM’s international protests cannot simply be treated as spontaneous expressions of Pashtun political sentiment.
A protest who apparently carry a human-rights slogan, its funding has reveal its political purpose.
PTM’s “Atrocities” Narrative Faces Questions Over Reported Taliban Links
PTM’s relationships with Taliban circles are important in this regard.
Khalid Zadran, described in reporting as spokesperson for the Kabul Police Command under Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry, has stated in his book 15 Minutes regarding PTM’s contacts with Taliban figures and networks. Reporting on the book says Zadran described a relationship between PTM and the Haqqani network and showed concerning contacts involving Manzoor Pashteen.
If PTM’s leadership maintained contacts with Taliban figures while the movement was presenting itself internationally as a purely civilian rights organisation, that would raise fundamental questions about the distinction between its political activity and regional terrorists networks.
The issue becomes more serious because PTM’s international narrative rarely gives comparable attention to the terrorists organisations that have devastated Pashtun communities.
TTP’s Praise of Manzoor Pashteen
Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesperson for Kabul’s police command and author of 15 Minutes, has described contacts between PTM figures and Taliban circles in his account of the movement’s activities. Reporting on the book says Zadran discussed meetings involving PTM, its support networks and the Haqqani network.
Mehsud’s Inqilab-e-Mehsud described the objectives of Manzoor Pashteen as aligned with those of the TTP.
Mehsud is the leader of TTP, an organisation responsible for attacks that have killed Pakistani civilians and security personnel, including large numbers of Pashtuns. The UN Security Council identifies Noor Wali Mehsud as the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and records the group’s responsibility for deadly attacks in Pakistan.
Pashtuns have been murdered by TTP terrorists. Pashtun tribal elders have been assassinated. Pashtun police officers and soldiers have been killed. Civilians have been driven from their homes by terrorists violence.
Yet PTM’s international messaging repeatedly places Pakistan at the centre of the Pashtun tragedy while terrorist organisations receive far less attention.
A movement claiming to speak for Pashtuns cannot selectively remember the people who killed Pashtuns.
PTM’s Ban Was Upheld by the Peshawar High Court
The federal government proscribed PTM in 2024 under the Anti-Terrorism Act. PTM and its leadership challenged the decision before the Peshawar High Court, seeking to overturn the proscription.
PTM’s international presentation also collides with the organisation’s legal record inside Pakistan.
On February 5, 2026, the Peshawar High Court rejected petitions challenging the proscription of PTM and several of its leaders, including Manzoor Pashteen.
The court subsequently dismissed the petitions as non-maintainable and directed the petitioners towards the federal review mechanism through which de-proscription could be sought.
The Oxford Controversy Adds to Questions Over PTM’s Narrative
The cancellation of a planned PTM UK event at Oxford shows organisation’s increasingly controversial international campaign.
PTM reportedly attributed the cancellation to “technical and logistical issues.” A reported Oxford decision letter gave a substantially different explanation, stating that the booking was cancelled following an institutional review that found reasonable grounds to believe the event risked “glorifying or encouraging terrorism and promoting hostility against ethnic groups.”
PTM’s public explanation presented the cancellation as a logistical problem. Institutional explanation centred on concerns about terrorism and ethnic hostility.
The episode fits into a broader pattern in which PTM’s international activities are presented to supporters through one political frame while external institutions may assess them through another.
The same standard now applies to the UN protest.
A banner saying “human rights” does not settle what political message stands behind the banner.
PTM’s UN Campaign: A Repeated Foreign-Funded Pattern
Despite that fact that PTM is proscribed and has proven links with terrorists organization and those who fund terrorism inside Pakistan, PTM continues to take its political campaign abroad, moving from protests and advocacy in foreign capitals to the UN platform in New York.
The organisation is not simply carrying a domestic rights campaign overseas; a proscribed organisation is attempting to internationalise its narrative against Pakistan through foreign platforms.
The foreign funding surrounding its overseas activities only adds to a pattern in which PTM repeatedly seeks international attention while portraying itself as an organic representative of Pashtun grievances.
