Lower Dir:
Tribal men from a border town in the Lower Dir district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have announced that they will take weapons against foreign terrorists operating in the fleeting region along the Afghan border, promising to expel them with their local facilitators.
The development comes in the midst of a sharp Uptick in terror violence in the border areas with reports that terrorists from the forbidden Tehreek-E-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and their Afghan cohorts use shrines across the border to launch attacks in Pakistan.
According to local sources, a magnificent Jirga, held on Saturday, solved that no terrorist would be allowed to stay in Maskini Darra, Lower Dir.
Jirga warned that if someone tried sabotage or undermining activity, their properties would be confiscated and their families along with their facilitators would be banished from the area.
The tribal collection also decided to organize night patrols to monitor and limit the terrorist’s movement along the border. The move follows revelations from security sources one day earlier that terrorists in the nearby Bajaur District lived among the local population while performing terrorist and criminal activities.
The provincial government, including minister of chief and senior security officials, had offered three options to local tribal releases: 1.) Exhibit foreign elements – most of which are Afghan citizens – from the area; 2.) If it is unable to expel them, leave the area temporarily for one or two days to allow security forces to perform operations to eliminate the terrorists; 3.) If none of them are possible, reduce the minimum security damage as surgeries will continue in any case.
Security sources emphasized that there was “absolutely no doubt about” holding conversations with “Khawarij” or their facilitators unless they surrendered to the state. Terrorists from TTP responsible for much of terrorist violence in the country-are officially appointed “Fitna al-Khwarij.” Officials claim that they receive financial and material support from India’s intelligence agency, RAW.
Sources of security said that the call of the tribe’s Jirga was a logical step to ensure maximum civil protection before any operation, but reiterated that there could be “no compromise” with Khawarij, described as “Islam’s enemies and the state.”
“Neither religion nor the state nor the values of the brave people in KP allow such a compromise,” said a source, adding that the authority to perform any armed operation is solely in the state.
