Arman Loni

Arman belonged to a modest family from Sanjawi in the Ziarat District of Balochistan, Pakistan. He belonged to the Loni Durrani tribe of the Pashtuns, and his father was a driver. Arman was a fan of football. He had three daughters, Mina, Awesta, and Hila. His younger sister, Wranga Loni, is also a human rights activist and writer. When Arman was a 14-year-old student of the 7th grade, he started working as a waiter at the restaurant where his elder brother, Muhammad Qasim, also worked. Arman would take over Qasim's duties during the second half of his shift. Arman received his early education in Sanjawi and completed his master's degree in Pashto at the University of Balochistan, Quetta. While pursuing his education, Arman also started working seasonally as a clerk at coal mines, and part-time as a tailor, to support his family financially. Despite the economic hardships, Arman started taking part in political activities of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and became a human rights activist during his student life. ==Career and political activism==

After his master's degree, Arman successfully passed the Balochistan Public Service Commission test in 2012 and became a lecturer of Pashto literature at Degree College Quetta. He was the founder of "Pashtun Progressive Writers" (, Paṣhtānə Mutaraqī Līkwāl), an organization aimed at nurturing the new generation of Pashtun authors. Arman then transferred himself from Degree College Quetta to Degree College Killa Saifullah to live with his family. Arman was arrested on May 12, 2018, before the PTM public gathering in Karachi, but he resumed his activism immediately after his release. On January 30, 2019, just three days before his death, Arman organized a sit-in in Karachi against the arrest of fellow PTM activist Alamzaib Mahsud, who had been arrested on January 21, 2019 after the second PTM gathering in Karachi. Following the Karachi sit-in, Arman travelled to Loralai for the last sit-in of his life. ==Death==

At the time of his death on February 2, 2019, the four-day sit-in in Loralai held by PTM activists to protest against the 2019 Loralai attack had been called off, and after negotiating with the government, the protesters were peacefully dispersing. When Arman was having tea that evening after the end of the protest, his friends told him that the police was looking for him. On March 5, 2019, the standing committee on human rights in the Senate of Pakistan condemned the police for refusing to lodge a first information report (FIR) for Arman's death. The committee ordered the police to lodge an FIR and launch an inquiry against the accused police officers. During the burial ceremony in Killa Saifullah, Manzoor Pashteen, Wranga Loni, and Nawab Ayaz Jogezai made speeches to the public. Pashteen said: "They killed our youth, beheaded our elders, destroyed our homes, dishonored our mothers and sisters. They still chase our youth. It reached a point where they even prevent us from attending our funerals. In such circumstances, when you block all our options and ways for negotiations, we will forcibly find a way. Then we will show you the power of Pashtuns." The firing incident was condemned by the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party senator Usman Kakar and the human rights minister Shireen Mazari. Asadabad, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, and Karachi on February 3, Kabul, Kandahar, Gardez, Sharana, and Zhob on February 4, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Ghazni, Qalati Ghilji, Bannu, and Barikot (Swat) on February 5, and Kunduz on February 7. In Bamyan, a protest gathering for Arman was held on February 14 in front of the Buddhas of Bamyan to condemn his murder. Investigation Although Arman's family maintained he was hit by the police, the police claimed that the death was caused by a heart attack following clashes between protesters and police. Reactions Human rights organizations More than 20 activists of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, including Gulalai Ismail and Abdullah Nangyal, were arrested by the Pakistani government during protests against Arman's murder. Rabia Mehmood, South Asia Regional Researcher at Amnesty International, stated: "These protestors must be released immediately and unconditionally. They are prisoners of conscience and have done nothing but exercise their peaceful and lawful right to protest against human rights violations and call for end to them. It is shocking that the Pakistani authorities have resorted to such heavy-handed methods even as senior government officials have clearly acknowledged that the PTM has legitimate grievances that must be addressed. To add insult to injury, the crackdown follows the horrific death of Arman Luni, one of PTM's activists." Afghan government Condemning the murder of Arman and the crackdown by Pakistani authorities against the nonviolent PTM activists, Ashraf Ghani, the President of Afghanistan, tweeted: "The Afghan government has serious concerns about the violence perpetrated against peaceful protestors and civil activists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan." He further said: "We believe it is the moral responsibility of every government to support civil activities that take a stand against the terrorism and extremism that plagues and threatens our region and collective security." However, Mujib Rahman Rahimi, the spokesman of Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, criticised Ashraf Ghani and termed his remarks as interference in another country's affairs. Rahimi said that the issues around PTM are "an internal matter of Pakistan. Afghanistan is not in a position which will interfere in others' affairs. We have many problems and issues inside our country and it is better to address them first." Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the Pakistani federal minister for foreign affairs, also rejected Ghani's tweet and called it a "gross interference" in the internal affairs of Pakistan. On the other hand, Amrullah Saleh, the former Afghan interior minister who had resigned to join Ghani's team in the upcoming presidential elections, praised Ghani and called on the Afghan civil society to show "solid solidarity with the peaceful civil activists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan." Responding to the allegation by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Saleh said: "We [Afghanistan] have been on the receiving end of terror and Taliban for years sent and exported from your country [Pakistan]. We have just sent back a tweet. There is a gross imbalance in our bilateral trade and tweet." Opposition parties in Pakistan The Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called for an "independent and transparent inquiry" into the "brutal killing" of Arman. Referring to the 'shutter down' strike in Balochistan on February 4, the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party senator Usman Kakar said in his speech to mourners: "This entire region is seething with anger. This is why everywhere from Quetta [in the south] to Sherani in the north is voluntarily observing a complete shutdown." ==See also==