KP CM doubles down on Tirah Valley displacement issue, calls jirga on Sunday to resolve dispute

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Tuesday doubled down on the controversy over the ongoing movement of people in the Tirah Valley and called for a jirga on February 1 to resolve the debate.

Following increased unrest and escalating security concerns, large-scale displacement is occurring in the Tirah Valley, with thousands of families leaving their homes for safer areas, including Bara and Peshawar.

The situation has seen the federal and provincial governments at odds with the former dismissing the notion of planned or forced displacement, while the latter has rejected as “misleading and factually incorrect” the federal government’s claim that the displacement of Tirah Valley residents from Khyber district is voluntary in nature.

Earlier today, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the current movement was part of a “routine” seasonal migration, adding that it was not a military operation in the area.

In a video message issued later in the day, CM Afridi said that a jirga in the KP Assembly comprising all political parties in the province had unanimously approved a 15-point agenda and everyone agreed that a military operation was not the solution to the problem and that terrorism was not being eliminated through operations.

He added that they all said that the issue should be resolved by sitting together so that permanent peace could be established.

“But they did not agree and it was decided in closed rooms that another operation would be imposed in the Tirah Valley. A 24-member committee was formed under the leadership of the Corps Commander and the IG FC (Inspector General of the Frontier Corps). In the 24-member committee, the elders of the Afridi tribe were told to leave their homes as they could not carry out the operation. The Afridi tribe did not agree with the committee members, but they were forced to leave their homes. in the snowy season,” said the prime minister.

CM Afridi added that he had repeatedly made it clear that not even animals could survive due to snowfall in the operation area and now everyone was seeing the images of displaced elderly, children and women.

Furthermore, he stated that no operation was being carried out due to the snowfall. “Now someone please explain to us what purpose has been achieved with these decisions taken in closed spaces? This operation was started only to defame me among my people and put an end to my government. But I went among my people and they gave me love and respect,” Afridi added.

“Now that they have understood that the decision to carry out the operation at this time was wrong, they have issued a press release that the people of Tirah are migrating of their own free will,” he said, apparently referring to a notification from the KP government’s Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Department that was shown today by the Defense Minister.

“This press release is extremely dangerous, it is trying to create a conflict between the province, the institutions and the federation. This is a plan to create a lack of trust. After this press release, the nation will not trust your words in any way because the corps commander and the IGFC have made big promises before the committee.”

CM Afridi said he would call a grand jirga of all tribes residing in Khyber on Sunday at 2 pm at the Jamrud football stadium, where people would be asked whether they were voluntarily displaced or forced to leave their homes.

“We will show the world that injustice is being done to us,” he said, adding that the people of KP were not expendable and their lives were not cheap.

CM Afridi said that at the time of the overthrow of the PTI government through a no-confidence vote, when militant activity began to revive, peace jirgas and marches were organized in Khyber, Hazara, Malakand, Dera Ismail Khan and Waziristan.

“We noticed that… terrorism was being imposed on us again. At that time, the illegitimate PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) government said that we were spreading false propaganda,” he said, adding that a large number of Pakhtuns took to the streets to reject decisions taken behind closed doors, adding that districts where people resisted such decisions remained peaceful to this day.

On the contrary, the prime minister said that areas where the threat was not taken seriously were again experiencing unrest.

CM Afridi claimed that despite 22 major operations and more than 14,000 intelligence-based operations, peace could not be maintained, and questioned what positive results could be expected from the launch of yet another operation in Tirah.

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Afridi added that his government had released Rs 4 billion for the care of affected families, citing past experiences where victims of previous operations were promised compensation but never received it. He said his government was determined not to abandon its people this time.

“I support the Pakhtun nation and will continue to fight for their rights until my last drop of blood,” he said, warning that failure to resist now would mean carrying coffins for the rest of their lives.