GHALANAI, Jan 30: Exodus of local people from militant-infested areas of the Mohmand Agency along the Afghan border has increased amid clashes between security forces and militants.

On the other hand, Tehrik Taliban’s Mohmand chapter spokesman Ikramullah Mohmand warned the government to stop demolition of houses and shops, otherwise government offices and other installations in the violence-plagued region would be targeted.

Official sources said over 400 houses and shops of suspected militants or those situated at a distance of 200 meters along both sides of the Peshawar-Bajaur road had been destroyed. Even six shops were torched in the Lakaro Bazaar and two houses were demolished in Mamad Gut by security forces on Friday, they said.

The Taliban spokesman also urged Khasadar personnel to quit their jobs and do not take part in the operation against the Taliban, otherwise they would face dire consequences.

Residents said that on daily basis hundreds of families from different villages of Baizai along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, including Sheikhan Baidmanai, Spinkay Tangi, Miazarogo and Shamshah, left their households and cattle in their houses and shifted to Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda and other districts of the province.

Scores of scared tribesmen, they said, had also fled to the neighbouring Afghanistan due to the increasing tension in the region. They said constant artillery shelling, jet fighters’ bombing, helicopter gunships’ shelling and free movement of Taliban militants in the region had forced them to leave their native towns.

About the situation in the violence-hit areas, they said dozens of civilians had been killed or wounded in the ongoing fighting between the troops and militants.

They said security forces were targeting suspected militants’ positions in Qandaro, Darwazgai, Pandyalai and Michni areas with artillery fire, but the ultimate sufferers were the common people.

The official sources said the political authorities had asked Masood, Gurbuz and Qandari tribesmen of the Lakaro tehsil in advance to expel militants from their respective areas or else migrate to safer places.

The demolition of houses and shops of suspected militants in different areas from headquarters Ghalanai to Darwazgai have panicked local tribesmen, who fear collateral damages in case of eruption of fierce gun battle.

Elders in various localities made announcements on loudspeakers in mosques, urging villagers to abandon their homes and go to safer areas in settled districts.

The elders of Isakhel and Burhankhel sub-clan have demanded that the political administration should ensure that innocent tribesmen, including elderly people, women and children, are not killed in the shelling.

They said the tribe had handed over all the wanted suspected persons to the local administration in accordance with the list provided to them. He said security forces were shelling the area despite promises made by the government with the tribesmen that no action would be taken against the tribe.

The flights of US drones in different areas of the volatile region have further aggravated the situation. The panic-gripped people fear potential drone attacks in suspected areas of the region.

Our Charsadda Correspondent reports: Dozens of internally displaced persons from the Mohmand region staged a protest against what they called illegal demolition of their houses by the political administration on Friday.

The people who left their homes in Mohmand due to the ongoing military operation there came out on the roads in the Sherpao area of Charsadda and appealed to the chief justice and president of Pakistan to intervene in the matter and stop the local administration from razing houses of poor people.

They said that on the one hand the people of the area had been forced to vacate their houses and on the other, their houses were being demolished in their absence.

They warned to stage sit-ins in front of the Frontier House and the Parliament House if demolition of their houses was not stopped forthwith.