Bara killings protests: Sheikhan villagers run to get food supplies as curfew relaxed

Many residents move out of the area, complain of excessive power cuts.

PESHAWAR: The curfew imposed in the Sheikhan Village, a suburb of Peshawar, was relaxed for four hours on Monday.

Announcements were made from mosques telling people they are allowed to step out of their houses from 8am to noon. The relaxation was welcomed by residents who were locked at home without adequate food supplies, drinking water and other daily essentials for four days.

“Most people used the opportunity to shift their women and children out of the area, while other people who could not afford to move ran to purchase food supplies,” said elder Akbar Khan.

Residents complained that due to excessive power cuts, there is now an acute water shortage. “We are poor people and cannot afford to buy ration in bulk. This unannounced curfew has hit us badly,” said an enraged resident Subhan Khan. He added that the government should seal the border instead of imposing a curfew and also provide relief to residents in the settled district.

A curfew was imposed in the village on Friday after tribesmen from Bara staged a sit-in for three days outside the Governor House to protest the killing of 18 people, including a woman and two children. Protesters accused the security forces for the deaths, while forces said that militants were behind the killings.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2013.