PESHAWAR, Feb 12: A tribesman moved Peshawar High Court on Tuesday against imposition of curfew in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency and requested it to conduct judicial inquiry into killings of innocent people and demolishing of their properties in the area.

Bazar Gul Afridi, the petitioner, said that curfew had been imposed in most parts of Bara tehsil for the last four years owing to which Bara Bazaar was closed, commercial activities were banned and people could not move freely. He said that continuation of curfew would bring more devastation and frustration to the area.

The petitioner has prayed the court that a judicial commission may be ordered to inquire as to how many innocent people have been killed and injured and how many houses and properties demolished since Sept 2008 when security forces were called to the tehsil. He added that the judicial commission might also pinpoint responsible security persons so as to punish them under the law.

The petition, filed through Advocate Samiullah Afridi, states that on one side militants killed innocent people and destroyed their houses and on the other security forces meted out the same treatment to tribal people.

The petitioner stated that security forces arrested innocent persons and confined them for years without initiating judicial proceedings against them or producing them before the court of law.

Federation of Pakistan through secretary defence; secretary of state and frontier regions division; inspector general of Frontier Corps; commandant of Mehsud Scouts; secretary law and order and additional chief secretary, Fata Secretariat; provincial secretary home and government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through advocate general are respondents in the petition.

The petitioner also cited the killing of 19 people on Jan 15, 2013, allegedly by personnel of Punjab Regiment in Bara stating that the bodies were placed outside Governor’s House as a protest.

He added that hundreds of innocent people including women and children were either killed or injured owing to indiscriminate shelling by security forces.

The petitioner stated that security forces conducted several operations but failed to bring peace to the area, therefore, their presence in the affected area was of no use.

The petitioner stated that owing to wrong policies of the government situation in Bara became the worst as a result of which subversive organisations emerged there.

He added that army was sent to Bara tehsil in 2008 and in Feb 2009 and curfew was imposed in the affected area. He added that local people were displaced forcibly to Peshawar and Jalozai camp in Nowshera.

The petitioner stated that it was duty of the state to protect the lives and properties of the people. He added that in case of killing of innocent people and destroying their properties including houses, the respondents were responsible to compensate the victims.