Parachinar carnage

Massacre in Kurram highlights unresolved land disputes and security issues in volatile tribal regions.

The massacre of dozens of people en-route to Peshawar from Parachinar is horrifying. The daredevil gun attack on passenger vans in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Lower Kurram district reportedly continued for more than five minutes as unknown assailants sporadically fired on them. This gruesome act is not the first of its kind as the former tribal belt bordering Afghanistan has long been a theatre of revulsion and bloodshed. The region unfortunately is mired in sectarian tensions too, but primarily such extreme killings are fuelled by vendetta over land disputes between various communities.

This time also the motive apparently seems to be to unresolved disputes. But what makes it highly unacceptable is that no concrete effort was evident for addressing this malaise and land commissions appointed to resolve the matter had ended in the annals of dustbin. To this day the findings of the land revenue probe were not made public, mysteriously citing sensitivities over the matter. Moreover, no heads were rolled to bring to book culprits who were involved in earlier such killings, and this tendency of looking the other way is now costing the very existence of the people of this volatile belt.

Parachinar and the adjoining mountainous territories have a couple of other irritants that come to haunt its serenity. The areas are home to gun-running, drug smuggling and human-trafficking; and free flow of men and material across the district often makes it an international issue. The presence of paramilitary forces, levies and regular army troops, along with scouts, has not been able to address these fissures, and this is where some indigenous empowerment is desired to deal with the mess. Lack of instant communication and administrative chaos rules the roost, especially after the decimation of the office of political agent and jirga system since the merger of the tribal areas into K-P. It goes without saying that patrolling of the sensitive belt is a must to avoid any future carnages.