Khyber: Military Action, Peace Bodies Formation opposed by Jirga
The members of a peace jirga rejected the creation of any peace body and the raising of any armed Lashkar to tackle the current law and order crisis in Khyber Region.
The jirga, which was held under the auspices of Bara Siyasi Ittehad, also condemned any military intervention in Tirah, where some militant groups had lately made a comeback. The bulk of the people, according to the jirga’s members, were not eager to leave their homes.
The jirga was attended by local elders, political party leaders, and activists from civil society organizations. They declared that they would not permit anyone to disturb the peace of Bara and Tirah in particular or the entire Khyber in general, taking seriously the level of instability in the area.
Members of the Jirga accused law enforcement of failing to monitor the movements of suspected militants. They also questioned what they called the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s illegal silence on the presence of armed groups in several regions of the province.
They also decided to start a series of meetings with the authorities to let them know they were worried about the rising level of unrest and their desire for a peaceful resolution to the problem.
Fate of Displaced Families of Khyber
According to local sources, the situation is far from stable in the troubled areas because of the presence of undesirable elements, and the fate of the recently relocated families from various areas of the Tirah valley still remains in doubt.
The relocated families were informed that the law enforcement forces had not yet launched any operations in the region, they claimed.
As no official records of the same were kept during their displacement, which began around three weeks ago, it is unknown how many families were recently evicted from Baghrai, Jarrhobi, Dray Nagharee, and Dwa Khulay.
Khyber: Military Action, Peace Bodies Formation opposed by Jirga
However, according to local sources who spoke to *The Asian Mirror*, roughly 100 families, largely from the Sipah and Kamarkhel tribes, have temporarily migrated to the Dars Jumaat neighborhood. They said that a few displaced families had relocated to Orakzai’s neighboring communities.
A Sipah native of Dray Nagharee named Hunar Bagh told *The Asian Mirror* that he and his family had travelled for about five hours to get to Bara and sought refuge in an abandoned warehouse.
The Sipah tribe was the final of the seven Bara tribes to be permitted to return to their houses, most of which had been damaged, after being displaced for a decade.
Some of the Kamarkhel displaced families currently residing in the Akkakhel neighborhood of Dar Jumaat refused to return after receiving the all-clear for their return just three weeks into their second phase of displacement.
The displaced families from Kamarkhel told the security officials that they would only return to their homes if they received complete assurances regarding their security, were acknowledged as registered internally displaced persons, and were given the kind of aid that the government had promised to other families from the province’s other areas affected by militancy.
