Despite the anguish that they are facing, these men are dancing said local. PHOTO: FILE
In what could be termed a ‘dance of death’, hundreds of tribesmen from Mir Ali tehsil of North Waziristan agency performed on Friday the Wazir Attan, a local dance, to register their protest.
At around nine in the morning, men of the Wazir and Dawar tribes, belonging to the 11 tehsils of the agency, gathered in an open ground near Mir Ali Bazaar to demonstrate against Thursday’s shelling which claimed lives of five people, including two women and two children, and injured nine others.
“To convey a message of peace to the world, despite the anguish that they are facing, these men are dancing,” said Malik Akbar Khan pointing to a dozen of men swirling to the beat of drums in a circle.
Khan told The Express Tribune that during the protest, which lasted for around eight hours, more than 1,500 tribesmen gathered for a grand jirga, headed by elders from Idak, Harmaz, Mossaki, Haidar Khel, Hasso Khel, Tori Khel and Tappi Dawar tribes, to discuss the problem tribesmen are facing. Addressing the jirga, Maulvi Abbas said that it was not for the first time that people from this area had been targeted by forces.
“There should be a stop to these incidents, or it would result in hundreds of loyal tribesmen turning against the government,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2013.
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any thing but we must feel the plight of these people seriously.
Even the picture of attan posted here is misleading. People don't wear these fancy dresses in Waziristan while doing attan.
@Yusuf: Attan (dance) is not just considered a dance in pushtoons it is part of culture. It is usually performed before grand jirgas, in weddings etc. It was even performed before going to war with British or with other tribes. The notion that these tribesmen are dancing as a protest is wrong. What they are doing here is doing attan before holding a grand jirga.
When the british were killing them they responded with fighting, but now they just dance...
it is a sign of real trouble when things start getting surreal