Surgical strikes: Dozens of families flee N Waziristan

Outflow of residents began as soon as the authorities relaxed the curfew.

MIRAMSHAH/ BANNU:

Dozens of families packed their bags in Mirali tehsil and made a beeline for Bannu city and other parts of the country following Saturday’s curfew break in North Waziristan Agency on Saturday.

At the same time, a few traders also opened shops and started business activities in the troubled tribal agency.

However, many tribesmen in Mirali and Machis Camp in Miramshah, headquarters of the agency, rushed to the market to dig out valuables from the rubble of their homes that were flattened by shelling.

Independent sources from the area said more than 80 people, mostly militants, were killed in the targeted operation in the agency while around 100 were injured and many arrested by security forces backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and heavy artillery.

They said many suspected militants hideouts were also destroyed.

Another source said important militant commanders – including Uzbek Commander Abu Ahmad, Commander Qanoni, suicide bombers’ commander Sabir, Commander Gilamand, and Commander Jihad Yaar – were also killed in Wednesday’s shelling.

A tribesmen from Machis Camp, Gul Daraz Khan, who was sitting and crying on the rubble of his house, said he was out of the area when the bombing started, adding that everything was destroyed.

“However, I am only worried about my father who is buried deep in the rubble of my house, upon which I am sitting right now,” he said.

Gul Daraz later on joined other tribesmen in pulling out the body of his dead father from the debris.

Haji Pir Muhammad Khan, who has a poultry farm in Mirali, said every building including his own house was destroyed except for the poultry farm.

“I don’t know how the farm remained safe in the shelling,” he said, adding that four members of his family were killed in the heavy bombing on Mirali Bazaar.

Miramshah Government Degree College’s principal Sultan Khan, using the loudspeakers of a local mosque, informed all the students in the area to come to the college on Monday for their chemistry paper and two practical exams, which were suspended due to ongoing curfew in the area.

On Saturday afternoon, the district government officials in Bannu imposed curfew on the main routes of the district leading to DI Khan, Peshawar and North Waziristan.

A district government official said curfew was imposed due to the movement of security convoys to North Waziristan Agency, adding that they would lift the curfew at night once the troops reached their destination.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2014.