Kurram operation: Govt claims to have cleared 95% of Mehmoodzai militant stronghold

Officials claim normal life now returning, residents complain of interrupted mobile phone service.

PARACHINAR: The government claims to have met major successes in its battle against militancy in Kurram Agency, with the tribal agency’s administration claiming that around 95% of the militants’ stronghold areas have been cleared of the threat.

At a press briefing held in Parachinar, Political Agent Shahab Ali Shah, the top government official in the agency, claimed that the overwhelming majority of the Mehmoodzai area in Kurram Agency had been cleared of militant hideouts. “Mehmoodzai was one of the militants’ strongholds in Kurram,” he explained. “However, it has now been cleared by security forces with the help of tribal elders.”

All is not yet calm, however. The government has now started to evacuate the civilian population from the Alisherzai area of Kurram, in preparation to launch a military operation against a militant group led by Fazl Saeed Haqqani.

Saturday’s briefing, though, was meant to highlight the government’s successes in the anti-militancy campaign. The administration presented 10 men whom it said were militants who had turned themselves in to the government. They were asked to tell their stories.

“We were abducted by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan,” said one of the former militants, who refused to give his name. “They forced us to kidnap people for ransom.”

Some of the alleged former militants said they had been trained in South Waziristan. Others said they were trained in the Mehmoodzai area of Kurram. All of them claimed that they would never join the militants again.

Shah then announced that the government would set up rehabilitation centres for former militants, much like those that were set up in Swat after the 2009 military operation against the Taliban.

Shah also claimed that normal life was beginning to resume in most parts of Kurram. Educational institutions and health facilities had begun to function again and roads leading in and out of the tribal agency had been re-opened. Some problems with mobile telecommunications, however, remained, and many of those present at the briefing complained that their mobile phones were not working.

The political agent explained. “Mobile phone services and other communication systems were blocked by security forces in order to avert IED attacks and to counter militant communications,” he said.

Those present at the briefing, however, were not sympathetic. Amjad Ali, a trader in Parachinar, said that he is often not able to call his relatives in Peshawar to let them know that he is still safe. “They do not know whether we are alive or dead,” Ali said.

As a result of the closure of the road networks, prices have gone up sharply in Kurram Agency. Haji Latif, a tribal elder, said that one kilogram of lentils costs Rs170 in Parachinar. The same bag would cost Rs130 in Peshawar.