Collective responsibility: Woman accuses khasadar of son’s detention

Protests on Pak-Afghan Highway in Jamrud, warns of more agitation if son not released.

JAMRUD: The plight of a fifty-year-old single mother, unsure of her son’s whereabouts, forced her to stage a sit-in at the Pak-Afghan Highway in Sor Kamar area of Jamrud, Khyber Agency.

Zar Masta began her protest on Monday morning, and despite various tactics of political administration officials to convince her to give up, she continued till evening the same day.

Talking to journalists during her protest, Masta said around 40 days ago, her 24-year-old son Zarmat Khan was allegedly taken away by khasadars who were nabbing tribesmen under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation, after an attack on a Nato container.

She said her son works as a labourer in Saudi Arabia and had recently returned home on holidays. He was waiting at the roadside for a van to take him to Peshawar so he could book his return ticket when he was reportedly taken into custody by khasadars.

Having migrated to Jamrud from Tirah Valley due to unrest there, Masta said her son was the sole bread winner of the family, whose members now went to sleep with empty stomachs. She added her husband passed away a long time ago and she was not in a condition to work for a living at this age.

Masta urged the political administration to release her son, maintaining that otherwise she, along with other women of the area, would set up a hunger strike camp on the bustling highway.

When asked about the incident, Jamrud Assistant Political Agent Roshan Mehsud brushed aside the case and termed the whole thing a ‘drama.’ He claimed he went to Sor Kamar and did not witness a protest of any sort.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2014.