Tirah Valley air strike: Government bound to pay complete amount of blood money, says PHC

Petitioner contends air force jets while targeting militants’ hideouts in Tirah valley killed 61 civilians.

PESHAWAR:

The government is bound to pay the required amount of blood money to the relatives of all those who were killed erroneously in an air strike in the war-hit Tirah Valley two years back, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) maintained on Thursday.

A two-member bench, headed by PHC Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth, stated this while hearing a petition filed by Kabal Shah, who has demanded that the government pay the complete amount of blood money to the families of all those killed in the bombing on April 10, 2010.

The bench observed that since security forces had been called in by the government for an offensive against militants in the tribal areas, it is solely bound to pay the blood money.



The petitioner contended that air force jets while targeting militants’ hideouts in Tirah valley killed 61 civilians and wounded 86 others, including women and children. Shah maintained that the amount paid to the diseased families was insufficient.

Iqbal Durrani, counsel for the political administration, informed the bench that a six-member committee comprising area elders had been constituted and a sum of Rs18million had been disbursed among the victims’ families after all the victims were identified by the committee. He said the political administration distributed Rs100,000 among legal heirs of the deceased and Rs50,000 to those who sustained injuries.

The bench, however, adjourned the case hearing upon request of representatives of the federal government to discuss the issue with the concerned ministries.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2012.