KHYBER: Tribal elders in Tirah and Bara areas here have refused to form peace committees and urged security forces to protect public life and property in the region.

Sources in Tirah told Dawn that elders from Malakdinkhel, Kamarkhel, Akkakhel, Sipah, Kukikhel, Adamkhel and Zakhakhel met security officials in Bagh Maidan area and were requested to help maintain peace in the valley.

However, the elders said the trust they developed with forces during the fight against the local Taliban and other militant groups in Tirah had eroded due to the latter’s failure to keep the promise of peace.

They also told security officials that most Tirah residents would prefer to shift to safer places instead of offering any help for maintaining law and order situation.

Complain security forces didn’t keep the promise of protecting public life and property

Sources said the help of local tribes was sought in light of the resurgence of armed groups in parts of the valley, whose residents recently returned after displacement of over a decade.

“We helped security forces restore peace in Tirah as the security officials would walk in the region scot-free without security at any time of the day and night,” a participant told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

He said it was impossible for residents to cooperate with security forces for peace as they’d lost confidence in state authorities over their failure to check the infiltration of militants on the fenced border.

The participants said it was the responsibility of the state to determine security lapses and the loss of the people’s trust in security and law-enforcement agencies.

During a recent meeting at Fort Salop in Bara, too, the local elders had conveyed the same to security officials.

They’re called to help security forces identify perpetrators of a grenade attack near the fort in Malakdinkhel area.

Sources insisted that some Bar Qambarkhel elders expressed willingness to cooperate with security forces in ‘tracing’ the wanted miscreants, while others from the same tribe in a subsequent meeting refused to form any peace committee or trace terrorists.

Elders and civil society activists from Bar Qambarkhel, Malakdinkhel and Sipah participated in the meeting.

The sources said the representatives of Sipah and Malakdinkhel tribes ‘flatly’ refused to offer any assistance for tracking down ‘undesirable elements’ in their respective areas and told security officials that it was their responsibility to ‘handle the situation’.

Meanwhile, sources in Bara told Dawn that families, which had fled Baghrai, Jarrhobi and Dray Naghari areas due to the presence of armed men, returned a couple of weeks ago.

They said around 100 families abandoned homes in villages only two months after their return in June as they saw heavily-armed men roam around freely.

The sources said majority of those families took a temporary refuge in Dars Jumaat, Akkakhel, upper Bara, insisting that they would return to their homes only when the security forces eliminated ‘militants’ from their villages.

They said there were rumours of a military operation in those localities on a limited scale but the armed men disappeared with no one knowing about their whereabouts.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2022