Whereabouts unknown: 14 Kurram tribesmen go missing from Badhaber

PESHAWAR: At least 14 tribesmen from Kurram Agency went missing mysteriously from Badhaber area late Tuesday night.

Rumours spread in the area that the people had been kidnapped. However, police has denied these speculations.

Talking to The Express Tribune, locals of Mera area in Badhaber, said the political administration of Kurram Agency along with the police raided a house and took away 14 people, including six hosts who also belong to the agency. Eight visiting tribesmen were in the city to attend a jirga at FATA Secretariat regarding the high-handedness of a khasadar subedar.

“Four hearings regarding the case have taken place in the past,” said a local. “This had to be the fifth one but some people raided the house and took the tribesmen away on gunpoint.”

He added when family members of the tribesmen went to a police station to register an FIR, the police refused to talk to them. This worried the family the most.

When contacted, Badhaber DSP Yasin said no one had contacted them in this regard and called the rumours about kidnapping “baseless.”

The men were taken away from the house of Malik Saud, a resident of Kurram Agency. Saud is among the men who have gone missing.