Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Scores of residents of Mir Ali tehsil of the North Waziristan Agency were on Monday present at a sit-in reportedly underway for two days against a resumption of violent attacks that have claimed three lives in a month.

Residence gathered on the Main Mir Ali Road and blocked it for all kind of traffic. They demanded an inquiry into the targeted killings and sought transfer of control of the area to the political administration and deployment of levies.

According to local journalists, people from various walks of life including students, school teachers, political workers, and civil society members were present in the demonstration against poor security situation in the agency that saw the powerful military offensive Zarb-e-Azb.

Speaking at the protest, the residents lamented that the area was under the control of security forces ever since the operation. They said the locals had surrendered all of their weapons at the time of their displacement and urged the authorities to find out those responsible for the latest series of attacks. “Where do the assailants come from and escape to after targeting innocents people?” The authorities should answer this question,” they said.

Speaking on the occasion, Shabqat Dawar, a Pakistan Peoples Party worker in the area, said, “Our houses, markets and property got destroyed in the operation. We returned hoping that there would be peace in the area and now we are being targeted inside our homes and the assailants get to escape in broad daylight. Please explain to me where do they come from and how do they escape so easily?”

He added, “we will not tolerate the dual policy of good and bad Taliban anymore. It has hit us badly.”

Those killed in targetted incidents this month included Musa Kaleem, son of former MNA Maulana Mohammad Dindar; and Abdul Qayum, a school teacher. The former was killed on Saturday evening when masked men opened fire at him in his guest house in Zirakae area of Mir Ali. The latter was killed on Sunday night. The third incident was reported from Miranshah.

Also in the last one month,  two girls’ schools were damaged in explosions and a marriage ceremony was targettted with a grenade. Five people were killed and 32 injured.

Another incident involved circulation of pamphlets attributed to Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen of North Waziristan asking locals to be ready to face consequences if they send their girls to schools.

Meanwhile, a jirga was held at the Governor’s House, Peshawar, on Monday to review the security situation in the area as well as the status of talks with the Pashtoon Tahaffuz Movement.

Daily Times made multiple attempts to get a comment from the assistant political agent, Capt (R) Zubair Niazi, but he was unavailable.