Psychological warfare?: Suburbs asked to fly national flag

Resid ents of Garhi Mali Khel, Suleman Khel, Masho Khel and Faqirabad oblige.


Riaz Ahmad September 21, 2014

PESHAWAR:


The security forces have asked residents of various villages in Badhaber to hoist Pakistani flags on their houses. The villages include Garhi Mali Khel, Suleman Khel, parts of Masho Khel and Faqirabad.


Following the directives, several residents of Suleman Khel have put up the national flag on their houses, while others are in the process of doing so, said locals.  Masho Khel elder Faiz Muhammad Khan told The Express Tribune on Sunday the instructions had also been given to some house owners in his village.

Security forces had been deployed in the area soon after a gun attack at a Pakistan International Airlines flight returning from Saudi Arabia on June 24. The attack left a woman passenger dead and two others injured.

Another elder said even though they face minor difficulties because of the deployment of forces, such as being denied entry after darkness falls, the residents are happy with troops in their villages where militants have killed several people.

“We are Pakistanis and if hoisting the national flag proves that I am patriotic then I will do it willingly,” he said.

An ISPR spokesperson in Peshawar told The Express Tribune people in Master Godar area had been putting up the flags of a banned outfit. He added an officer of the security forces called a jigra and asked elders to remove them and raise Pakistani flags instead.

“The national flag represents the unity of the people living in this country,” the spokesperson said.

In the past, people who lived close to the Peshawar’s border with Akka Khel, Khyber Agency would put up the flag of the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) on their houses to ensure they remain safe from LI militants. However, this trend came to an end after military operations in the restive agency.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2014.

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