KOHAT, June 5 The close proximity of tribal areas, infested with criminals, to the district has always remained a major threat to residents and a challenge for the law enforcing agencies.

The general law and order situation is directly linked to the activities of the kidnappers, carjacker and hired assassins, sheltering in the Orakzai Agency and Darra Adamkhel. Out of 14,000 proclaimed offenders, hiding in the seven Fata and six Frontier regions, majority of them have permanent hideouts in both regions.

Presence of the Taliban in the surrounding areas has helped criminals to disguise themselves as Taliban to operate easily as the ill-equipped and poorly trained police are afraid of them.

A steep rise in militancy coupled with the strikes of the outlaws has literally made the police and tribal administration helpless. As a result the people are completely at the mercy of 'religious leaders' specially those from the banned groups to negotiate release of their relatives.

Now the Taliban have also started kidnapping people for ransom. They are targeting people from the Shia community and vice versa, which has given a totally different dimension to the issue. The victims are considered lucky if freed alive by militants even after paying ransom.

Earlier, only businessmen and rich people were the target of the gangs but now teachers, doctors, senior government officials, schoolchildren, soldiers, bankers and engineers have also become soft targets. Extremist elements in both rival sects and the slaughtering of the victims have benefited both professional criminals and the Taliban who now make demands for ransom per person as high as Rs10 million.

The professional criminals have their own reasons but the Taliban say that they need money for funding the so-called jihad and carrying out attacks on the 'pro-US' government.

Similarly, during the last month, over eight mutilated bodies of girls and women have been found in Shakardarra, Ustarzai and Kohat. It is a new phenomenon where nobody comes to claim the dead bodies due to social stigma attached to the kidnapping and killing of the females. They are usually buried by the tehsil municipal administrations.

A senior police officer, when asked to comment on the murder of women, said that the victims were allegedly prostitutes and victims of Talibanisation in the region. The Taliban and the rival sects try to catch more people to swap them for their own people, and are successful in getting the deals done along with making payments.

The reason why the government and the tribal elders fail to tackle the situation is that sectarianism, militancy, crimes and tribal feuds have mingled with each other in the Kohat region. It is certainly a challenge for the government.

Earlier, the people thought that Kohat would remain unscathed by the militants and criminals because it is the headquarters of a division of the army and there are regional offices of intelligence agencies whose jurisdiction stretches to South Waziristan and Kurram Agency. But they mainly remained concerned with who entered or crossed the Durand Line instead of keeping an eye on those entering the settled areas increasing the internal threat to the state.

Unfortunately, despite having better resources as compared to the police, the security and intelligence agencies have not been able to clear the Kohat-Darra Adamkhel and Kohat-Parachinar highways from the militants during the last four years. Those militants, who operated freely during the government of the MMA, could not be arrested by the law enforcing agencies even today. This is a dilemma!