Five brutally put to death in N Waziristan

Police say all victims were non-locals, identity of two yet to be established

MIRANSHAH:

In yet another tragic incident, five people have been brutally put to death in the North Waziristan tribal district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday.

Police told The Express Tribune that the bodies of five non-locals had been found in two separate places in the Mir Ali tehsil of the tribal district.

“Four bodies were found in one place in Hurmaz village of people who had been gunned down in the night. Two of them were later identified as pick-up drivers while the identities of the remaining two are yet to be established,” said a police official of the local police station, adding that the pick-up drivers Naseebullah and Attaur Rehman hailed from Lakki Marwat district.

Police also found a pick-up laden with fresh vegetables and a truck parked in the area and believed that the vehicles belonged to the two unfortunate men.

Another man’s body was found in the Mir Ali Bazaar which was later identified as Arif Khan, a resident of Karak.

Police have registered FIRs in both the cases and sent the bodies to hospital for autopsy.

It may be recalled that, on January 1, six non-local young barbers had been slaughtered in an incident of sinister violence that had purportedly sought to capitalise on ethnic fault lines in the North Waziristan tribal district. Four terrorists, including a would-be suicide bomber, had also been subsequently eliminated in an intelligence-based operation (IBO). As per a statement of the military’s media wing, an intense exchange of fire had taken place between troops and the terrorists during the conduct of the operation.

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Although no group had immediately claimed responsibility for the sickening slaughter in the Mir Ali tehsil of North Waziristan, the banned umbrella organization of terrorist outfits, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, does maintain a presence in the region.

The bodies of the six men had been discovered in the fields of Moski village in Mir Ali. A preliminary investigation has suggested that the victims, all of whom hailed from Punjab, had been shot dead execution style.

The victims, all below 30 years of age, included two youths less than 18 years old who did not possess National Identity Cards (NICs). All of them were barbers, having recently migrated to North Waziristan to pursue their trade. Sources revealed that the victims owned barber shops in the Mir Ali Bazaar.

According to sources, the barbers were reported to have been kidnapped before meeting their tragic end. They had been abducted under the cloak of darkness and subsequently murdered by unidentified assailants. It was not until morning that the bodies were spotted in fields by locals who had then immediately alerted law enforcers. The bodies had been shifted to the Mir Ali Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Meanwhile, the families of the victims are facing hurdles in repatriating the bodies to their ancestral homes due to financial constraints. Authorities have advised them to come to Bannu to claim the bodies or else they may be buried there.

The distressing news has plunged the victims’ households into deep mourning, with parents reportedly suffering from panic attacks due to the devastating loss of their loved ones. The barbers working in Waziristan are usually from economically disadvantaged backgrounds seeking to provide for their families.

The motive behind the sickening violence remains unclear.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^th, 2024.