Destroying traditions: Tribals block Mohmand-Bajaur road in protest

3-hour-long blockage delayed senior police officer’s convoy

SHABQADAR: Tribal elders in the Mohmand Tribal District on Thursday marched through the district to send a clear message to the police administration of the province that convincing them to give up their traditions of policing their areas and allowing a uniformed police in the area will be an uphill battle.

On Thursday morning, tribal elders in Mohmand were attending a Jirga in Ghazi Baig area of Haleemzai to discuss the proposed construction of police stations in the merged district when they got word that the Mardan Regional Police Officer Muhammad Ali Gandapur was visiting the area.

Gandapur is the designated focal person for the Mohmand Tribal District and is working with the local administration and existing security forces to chart up a plan to raise a police force.

On learning that Gandapur was visiting the district, the tribal elders marched from Ghazi Baig to the district headquarters of Ghallanai.

To get RPO Gandapur’s attention, they blocked the main Mohmand-Bajaur Road at Chanda near Ghallanai by staging a sit-in.

Tribal elders including Malik Nadir Mannan, Malik Fayaz Khan, Malik Ziarat Gul, Malik Sultan Khan, Malik Amir Nawaz Khan and others starts to convene a jirga of their own on the road, stating that they will not allow the RPO to use the road to return to Ghallanai.

As a result, cars started queuing up.

The tribal elders also chanted slogan against the introduction of police in the merged tribal district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), adding that they will not allow a police station to be built on their soil.

Mannan claimed that the merger has been imposed upon them without their consent and that they will resist any policing system introduced in the area.

Explaining his opposition to the policing system, he said that it would destroy their traditional system of ‘Riwaj’.

Gul said they had rendered immense sacrifices for restoring peace in the area, but if the government insists on introducing police instead of continuing with the existing system of Khasadars and Levies, then we will resist.

He went on to ask that if the levies are acceptable in the Malakand division, then why can they not be continued in the former agencies of the Federally administered tribal areas (FATA).

The tribal elders kept the road closed for around three hours. They only allowed it to open on the request of the Upper Mohmand Assistant Commissioner and a senior Frontier Corps official.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2018.