Under pressure: In FR Peshawar, Maliks warned against cooperating with authorities

Militants have told elders to distance themselves from political administration.

PESHAWAR: The Taliban have warned Maliks in Frontier Region (FR) Peshawar against attending meetings called by the political administration.

Maliks have further been told to distance themselves from peace militias and other “anti-Taliban activities,” said sources familiar with the matter.

Local elders said the writ of the government is non-existent in the area, especially since the khasadar force and levies personnel deserted their posts. The region is now completely unguarded from militants who freely roam the area.

“Most khasadars and levies personnel have left and are now working in Karachi and Lahore. Taliban militants face no opposition,” said an elder of the Hasan Khel clan. “Militants call me almost on a weekly basis and warn me against attending meetings with the political administration,” he said.



There are at least 75 Maliks in the region and most of them now live in Peshawar due to security problems in their ancestral villages.

Another local elder confirmed the militants warning. “They will call you and in a very polite manner tell you that you are a respectable leader of the Afridi clan and respectable for the militants too – until you join hands with the political administration or raise a peace militia against them,” he said. After sunset, most people confine themselves to their homes.

A girls school in Hasan Khel where 350 studied was also shut down after militants threatened the owner, who now lives in Peshawar. Residents said FR Peshawar had a literacy rate of 50% and the female teachers were also from the area. That is changing since the militants arrived, however.

Fortunately, girls schools have not been targeted considering most schools in the adjacent settled district of Peshawar have been destroyed.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2013.