Akbar Khan is a tribesman from the Cheenagai village of Tehsil Mamund in Bajaur Agency, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). He belongs to the Inam Khwar section of the Wara Mamund sub-tribe of the Mamund tribe. One morning, he commits a murder. Bajaur Agency’s political administration orders the arrest of Akbar Khan, but it is learnt that he has fled the area.

The administration orders that Akbar Khan’s father or his brothers be arrested, but it is learnt that they too have fled the area. The administration orders the arrest of his uncles and cousins, but it is learnt that all of them have left the area by now. Not one to give up, the administration orders the arrest of Akbar Khan’s distant relatives from the Inam Khwar section. However, it is learnt that nobody from the particular section could be rounded up for some reason. Next, the administration orders the arrest of anybody from the Wara Mamund sub-tribe. Once that fails too, the administration rounds up anybody and everybody from the Mamund tribe, all 200,000 of them. This was payback by extortion for a crime committed by one man, Akbar Khan.

Such are the ways of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), which spares neither humans nor humanity in its reign of terror. In its use, the FCR is often used as a tool of extortion against the families of those accused of committing a crime.

The FCR spares nobody, it only leaves harrowing tales of victims in its wake

Attaullah Khan, a resident of Kausar Village in Bajaur Agency, was en route to his gur (raw sugar) shop at the Inayat Kalay Bazaar, when he was stopped by FC men at the bazaar’s entrance. They took him to the base camp but nobody knew what Attaullah Khan’s fault was. He was the lone breadwinner for a family of seven, while his two elder sons were about to take their SSC examinations.

Attaullah was later handed over to the political administration of the agency. When contacted through local elders, the political agent accused the family of offering food to the Taliban during an operation. His sons couldn’t appear in their exams; they started selling gur at their father’s shop. But soon, the political agent had their shop shut down, saying that the law did not permit the family to run any business within the boundaries of Bajaur. Those kids are now working in Karachi, while Attaullah Khan is yet to be released.

Usman Ghani, a student of BBA (Hons) who hails from Khyber Agency, has a similar tale from 2008. Ghani claims that his father and uncle were detained by the political agent for six months for a crime committed by someone, not even related to their family, in the Zakhakheil section of Afridi tribe. The family business in Bara, headquarters of the Khyber Agency, was closed down and the whole family was kept on the Exit Control List, barred from entering Peshawar or other settled areas of KP.

Among those detained was 70-year-old Sher Alam Haji. He belonged to a low-income household, and failed to pay the fine levied... Sher Alam and his son were jailed for a year, till Sher Alam died of a heart attack in custody.

Mujahid Mehsud, a student from South Waziristan, says that he has been living in Tank since the last six years along with thousands of residents from the Badar area of the agency. The political agent has seized their property, while schools and markets are now shut because local residents failed to form an anti-Taliban militia. Mehsud was later denied admission to the government college in Tank, so he had to seek financial support from the director of the Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar to complete his studies.

Asif Afridi, a resident of Darra Adam Khel, recalls that Amir Zada from the Zarankheil tribe had become a member of a car-lifting gang in Punjab. They had stolen a car from Punjab and shifted it to Darra Adam Khel, but the owner of the car was an influential man and used his contacts to trace his car. Amir Zada was summoned by the political agent, but he somehow managed to flee to Peshawar before he could be apprehended. To bring him back to Darra Adam Khel, the political agent started arresting everyone from the Zarankheil tribe; they were all charged with heavy fines to compensate the owner of the car.

Among those detained was 70-year-old Sher Alam Haji. He belonged to a low-income household, and failed to pay the fine levied. His only son, Abid Alam, was a student at Islamia College Peshawar; he rushed to the village to rescue his father. But to his surprise, the political administration arrested him too. Sher Alam and his son were jailed for a year, till Sher Alam died of a heart attack in custody.

Muhammad Rasool and Haji Muhammad Yaar, residents of Nawagai sub-division of Bajaur Agency and members of Miangan tribe, had hired locals for mining chromite reserves in the mountains of Nawagai. They started off well and were earning in good numbers, also paying the local community their bit. The local Tehreek-i-Taliban commander, Pervaiz, was informed of their earnings; he demanded 20pc of the revenue as protection money from the contractors, and also asked the community to pay extortion money.

According to Rasool and Yaar, the political agent had them arrested on the complaint of former governor, Shaukatullah Khan, on the pretext that the business was illegal. A jirga was constituted to resolve the issue, heavy bribes were allegedly offered to jirga members by the governor’s family, and the former governor got a favourable decision. It was decided that from now on, the chromite reserves would be under the supervision of the governor’s father and that he would be requested to spend the profit on welfare of the local community.

But Akhtar Khan, another resident of Nawagai, claims that his tribe, Gudkheil, is the real owner of the marble mountains of Nawagai and that the governor and his father have illegally occupied them.

He says that they registered several complaints in the political agent’s office but to no avail. Meanwhile, Muhammad Rasool and other locals say that their resources are quickly depleting due to aggressive mining and the transportation of marble to Punjab.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 6th, 2014