Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recently visited Parachinar along with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department officials without obtaining the required no objection certificate (NOC), Daily Times has learnt. According to sources, FATA Health Directorate deputy director Dr Ikhtiyar Ali facilitated the visit of the three-member ICRC team, comprising Dr Sahabat Gillani, Dr Zahidullah and Majid Khan.

International humanitarian organisations, including the ICRC and a number of international non-government organisations (INGOs), need to have an NOC before visiting the tribal areas. However, the visit by the ICRC staff was carried out without obtaining the NOC.

Parachinar, the headquarters of Kurram Agency, has been a target of several terrorist attacks. On June 23, bomb blasts killed over a hundred persons. Residents later staged a protest sit-in against the government and security forces. “The ICRC team arrived in Parachinar on Sunday. They returned to Peshawar after a two-hour assessment of the local district headquarters hospital on Monday morning,” source said.

Unlike the ICRC protocol worldwide, the visit by the health officials had an armed escort. Sources said that upon reaching Parachinar, Dr Ikhtiyar Ali had left for Peshawar to attend some urgent meeting. “The unauthorised visit by health officials has raised concern among security agencies. Security officials questioned a number of officials in the FATA Health Directorate as well as other related organisations following the visit,” sources said.

Earlier, FATA Health Directorate and the ICRC officials had also visited Khyber Agency without acquiring an NOC.

Two ICRC employees had been abducted by militants in Khyber Agency in February 2008. They were freed after two weeks later.

The ICRC has been providing humanitarian assistance to people in the tribal belt as well as KP, Azad Kashmir and other provinces. However, a number of its offices in KP, Kashmir and Punjab were shut down in 2012 as the organisation decided to reduce its activities.

Published in Daily Times, July 21^st, 2017.