LANDI KOTAL: The residents of Jamrud and Bara have demanded demolition of nearly two decades old boundary wall between the Hayatabad township of Peshawar and parts of Khyber district as the tribal region has now become part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the passage of 25th constitutional amendment.

Residents and elders of Kukikhel-Katiakhel tribe of Jamrud and Bar Qambarkhel, Malakdinkhel, Shalobar and Sipah in Bara told Dawn that the boundary wall had become redundant after the successful culmination of military operations in most parts of Khyber and also after the tribal regions’ merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in May this year.

The Peshawar Development Authority started constructing a boundary wall on border with the Shalobar area of Bara and Shah Kas in Jamrud after its completion of Phase-6 of Hayatabad township in late 90s in order to secure the new township from criminal elements as had the then PDA and Peshawar police argued in defence of the wall, which was strongly protested by both the residents of Shalobar and Shah Kas.

Say wall of no use after completion of military operations in Khyber areas

The wall was later extended to Phase-1 and 7 of the township and also to the adjacent industrial estate for security reasons.

The elders argued that they gave their prized land to PDA for the construction of Hayatabad township, especially the Phase-6 and 7, but soon after its completion the authority constructed a boundary wall which restricted their easy entry to most parts of Hayatabad.

“Initially, the local tribesmen made some breaches in the wall in order to freely enter Hayatabad and return home, but the police and other law enforcers would soon plug such breaches and this continued for some years,” Malik Bismillah Katiakhel of Shah Kas told this correspondent.

The surveillance and security of the boundary wall, however, was further tightened after the start of military operations in most parts of Bara in Sept 2009 when thousands of Bara families fled their homes and since then families residing on the Khyber side of the wall were allowed to use a pedestrian gate opposite Shah Kas area.

Bismillah Katiakhel said that thousands of Jamrud and Bara residents, which included students, traders, transporters, patients and ordinary tribesmen, went to Peshawar and especially Hayatabad, but were inconvenienced due to restrictions on crossing the boundary wall.

“Most of us, especially students studying in different Hayatabad schools, use the Karkhano market road to reach Peshawar, which is always overloaded due to excessive traffic which causes long travel delays,” he remarked.

Dawn has learnt that the then political administration of Khyber had tried in 2016 to build a gate at a suitable point of the wall near the Shah Kas Levies centre to facilitate crossing of vehicles to Hayatabad, but the effort was thwarted by then KP police chief on security grounds.

A former official of the political administration told this correspondent that the then administration had held a number of meetings with the Commissioner Peshawar and officials of PDA along with the offer of shouldering the responsibility of security of the wall by Khasadars in lieu of permission for building a gate, but the ‘project’ was torpedoed by then IGP Nasir Durrani on security grounds.

Khiyal Mat Shah, a former councillor from Bara, said that the boundary wall had multiplied the miseries of Bara residents as they were now using a longer route to reach Peshawar. He said that a large number of Bara residents had shifted to Hayatabad township while local traders established their businesses in Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2018