JI opposes new Tirah operation

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has strongly opposed the proposed new military operation in Tirah Valley, calling on the government and security institutions to present the nation with the outcomes of successive operations conducted since 2007.

The party warned that launching another operation without accountability would only deepen public mistrust and trigger a major humanitarian crisis.

Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, JI Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Central Chief Abdul Wasay said that after every past operation, authorities had claimed that a "handful of terrorists" had been eliminated and their backbone broken. "Yet, after some time, the same militants re-emerge, fully active again," he remarked.

He was accompanied by former MNA and JI provincial general secretary Sabir Hussain Awan, JI Khyber district chief Shah Faisal Afridi, former Bara tehsil chief Khan Wali Afridi, Sultan Akbar Afridi, and other party officials.

Abdul Wasay urged the provincial government to focus on the plight of millions of affected people rather than selective political considerations. He recalled that during an All Parties Conference (APC), all political parties had unanimously opposed the displacement of civilians under the pretext of military operations, especially during harsh winter conditions. The APC had decided to form an all-parties peace jirga to work for sustainable peace and ensure implementation of peace-related resolutions passed by the provincial assembly.

"Unfortunately, no progress has been made on this decision so far," he said.