• Law enforcement forces seize bunkers and checkpoints amid a plan to secure the Parachinar route in the coming days.
• Jirga demands investigation into violations and non-compliance with peace agreement
PESHAWAR/KURRAM: To rid the restive Kurram of miscreants and secure the highway connecting the district with other parts of the country, a security operation has been launched in Bagan area of the tribal district, officials said on Sunday.
“The forces have started the operation to disinfect the area in and around Bagan by taking checkpoints and destroying bunkers along the route,” sources aware of the details of the operation said.
They said security forces and the paramilitary Border Corps were leading the operation, closely followed by police.
According to officials, law enforcement officers were moving into the villages, but the miscreants had already fled and evacuations of residential areas were already underway. “The plan is to secure the road in the next few days to allow trucks to start moving (between Kurram and Peshawar),” they said.
Law enforcement agencies had taken control of the bunkers in the mountains and a search operation was expected overnight, the officials said, adding that security forces were deployed in lower Kurram and the operation would be carried out in four villages.
During a press conference held in Kurram on Sunday, regional police officer Abbas Majeed Marwat said that the first convoy successfully left for Parachinar, followed by a second convoy. He said locals had promised that the third convoy would bring more supplies and would support it, but the attack occurred, resulting in several deaths.
“As per the agreement signed by both groups, action will be taken against saboteurs who place obstacles… and security forces and police will act jointly and are taking action,” RPO Marwat said, adding that social media was being monitored and measures were being taken. .
On January 17, the provincial government issued a notification for establishment of camps to accommodate people temporarily displaced due to possible crackdown on miscreants in Bagan, Mandori, Charkhel, Chapri Paraw and Chapri areas of Kurram.
“It has become inevitable to take action against a few miscreants present in the affected areas. The state supports peaceful citizens,” read a statement issued by lawyer Mohammad Saif, spokesperson for the KP government.
The statement came after a high-level meeting held to assess the situation in Kurram district. In the meeting it was decided to take strict action against miscreants without discrimination. Lawyer Saif said the provincial government had been trying to peacefully restore peace in the area for the last three months, but some miscreants had been conspiring to sabotage the agreement.
Jirga demands investigation
Meanwhile, members of the grand jirga, which brokered a peace deal between the warring groups on December 31, demanded a judge-led joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the violation of the peace deal and take action. against those who openly support the militants.
The members, in a letter addressed to the president, the prime minister, the chief of army staff, the federal interior minister and the prime minister and governor of the KP, read that they were of the opinion that what the jirga had said was not being fulfilled . Nor did the state institutions act according to the written agreement signed in 2024. The letter, issued on Saturday, said that the regional military leadership had assured that a convoy would leave on January 16 and would be escorted by the police, the army and the FC. in addition to air support from five helicopters.
It said people from all villages and other militants started firing at the convoy with light and heavy weapons as it passed through Bagan, where the trucks were looted and four drivers were killed, while some were still missing.
“Those deployed for security never resisted… Reports of the killing of five militants were broadcast on television which were incorrect,” the jirga members claimed, adding that state institutions had completely failed to maintain peace in the restive district.
Sitting in Bagan
Bagan residents are also holding a sit-in that has entered its fourth week. On January 17, a local Bagan city elder, Haji Karim, said their demands had not yet been accepted.
“We have four demands. Operation against miscreants in the district, disarmament, demolition of bunkers and compensation for the more than 500 shops and houses that were destroyed in an attack after the November 21 ambush on a Parachinar-bound convoy,” Karim said. Sunrise.
The KP health department on Sunday issued a statement saying that emergency medicines have been sent to Parachinar and added that the medicines were being handed over to the Parachinar medical superintendent to manage the emergency situation effectively.
The statement, quoting health secretary Adeel Shah, said a total of 4,000 kilograms of medicines worth Rs 5 million were transported through two flights of the KP government helicopter.
Kurram’s ordeal
A passenger convoy that was attacked on November 21, 2024 in Bagan triggered armed clashes between two groups, leaving more than 130 people, including women and children, dead. On November 22, the Bagan bazaar was attacked when more than 500 shops, as well as several houses, were set on fire.
Although the main transport route between Peshawar and Parachinar, which passes through Bagan, has remained closed for more than 100 days, life in Bagan, an area located on the main route about 60 kilometers northwest of the district headquarters of Parachinar , with about 24,000 registered voters, is also deadlocked.
After months of violence, a large jirga announced a peace agreement. However, the agreement suffered a serious blow when a convoy carrying relief supplies to Parachinar was attacked in Bagan on January 16, the same area where the November 21 attack took place. Previously, the former deputy commissioner’s convoy was attacked a few days after the agreement.
Published in Amanecer, January 20, 2025.
