Khawaja Asif, Attaullah Tarar and Ikhtiar Wali Khan hold press conference. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB
ISLAMABAD/ PAKISTAN:
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said on Tuesday that the current displacement in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tiral Valley was part of “routine” seasonal migration, adding that there was no military operation in the area amid a raging controversy over the situation between the federal and provincial governments.
Following an increase in unrest and escalating security concerns, large-scale displacement is underway in the Tirah Valley, with thousands of families leaving their homes for safer areas, including Bara and Peshawar.
The situation has put the federal government and the provincial government at loggerheads with the former rejecting the idea of planned or forced displacement, while the latter has rejected as “misleading and factually incorrect” the federal government’s claim that displacement of the residents of the Tirah Valley in Khyber district is voluntary in nature.
Addressing a press conference on the matter in Islamabad, flanked by Information Minister Attaullah Tarrar and the Prime Minister’s Coordinator for Information on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Affairs Ikhtiar Wali Khan, Asif dismissed reports of forced displacement in the Tirah Valley as a “misrepresentation” of what he said was “routine” seasonal migration.
“This [issue] which has been characterized as a crisis, is in fact no crisis. This is routine.”
Speaking about the controversy, he said residents of six to seven valleys in the area migrated for four to six months when the snowfall began, moving to areas with less severe cold, leaving one or two people behind for safety.
“This is not a crisis, but a routine practice that has been going on for years and can be verified.”
Asif said a jirga was held on December 11 with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group present, which included 24 to 36 points regarding the migration. He said the TTP negotiated with the provincial government a Rs4 billion migration package, which was subsequently approved.
Stressing that the army, which was present in the area for defense purposes, had no connection with this arrangement, the minister clarified that the package was strictly between the jirga and the provincial government.
He further explained that it was strategically decided years ago that intelligence-based operations (IBOs) would be more effective than full-scale operations in the area to minimize collateral damage and civilian casualties.
“The Army has been abandoning operations in favor of IBOs for a long time … This is not an operation that [in Tirah Valley]. The migration there is routine,” Asif reiterated.
The defense minister criticized the performance of the provincial government in the area, pointing out the complete absence of hospitals, schools, police stations and civilian law enforcement in the region despite promises.
He said the federal government had begun a process to reverse this by building schools and hospitals for the citizens to benefit from the surplus, while hinting that the interests of the provincial government are aligned with the TTP in joint utilization of this resource.
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More to follow
