K-P CM doubles down on Tirah Valley displacement issue, calls jirga on Sunday to resolve dispute

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

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

The situation has caused the federal and provincial government to be at loggerheads with the former rubbishing the notion 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 of Khyber district is voluntary in nature.

Earlier today, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the current displacement was part of “routine” seasonal migration and added that there was no question of a military operation in the area.

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

He added that everyone 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 on Tirah Valley. A 24-member committee was formed under the leadership of the corps commander and IG FC (Frontier Corps inspector general). In the 24-member committee, the elders of the Afridi tribe were told to vacate their homes because they could not carry out the operation. The Afridi tribe did not agree with the committee members, but they were forced to vacate their homes in the snowfall season,” the chief minister claimed.

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

He further claimed that no operation was being carried out due to the snowfall. “Now someone please explain to us what purpose has been achieved by these decisions made in closed rooms? This operation was started only to defame me among my people and to end 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 K-P government’s Relief, Rehabiliation and Settlement Department that was was shown today by the defence minister. 

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

CM Afridi said he would convene a grand jirga of all tribes residing in Khyber on Sunday at 2pm at Jamrud Football Stadium, where people would be asked whether they were displaced willingly 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 K-P were not expendable and that their lives were not cheap.

CM Afridi said that around the time of the PTI government’s ouster through a vote of no-confidence, when militant activity began resurging, peace jirgas and marches were organised across Khyber, Hazara, Malakand, Dera Ismail Khan and Waziristan.

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

In contrast, the chief minister said areas where the threat was not taken seriously were once again suffering from unrest.

CM Afridi claimed that despite 22 major operations and more than 14,000 intelligence-based operations, peace could not be sustained, questioning what positive outcomes could be expected from launching yet another operation in Tirah.

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Afridi added his government had released Rs4 billion for the care of affected families, citing past experiences where victims of earlier operations were promised compensation but never received it. He said his government was determined not to abandon its people this time.

“I stand with 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.