KHYBER: As the government doubled down on its claim that no military operation was being planned or currently underway in the Tirah Valley, civil society in Bara criticised federal ministers for what they termed “derogatory and humiliating remarks” about displaced families.
Taking umbrage at the assertion about ‘seasonal migration’ by Tirah residents, Bara Tehsil Chairman Mufti Kafeel argued that no such event had taken place since 2015, when residents were allowed to return to their homes after completion of a military operation.
Some questioned why registration centres were established for these families when they were supposedly going to Bara on a ‘joy ride’, as the ministers seemed to claim.
Former MNA Hameedullah Jan Afridi said the defence minister’s statement was tantamount to rubbing salt in the wounds of the people of Tirah and Bara.
Talal Chaudhry accuses PTI of concocting narrative to ‘hide their corruption’; says any military action will only be launched ‘after informing everyone’
Talking to Dawn, he said that these statements were “unbearable, shameful and completely opposite” to the facts about the displacement of residents.
“We reject this baseless and misleading statement and want to clarify that the residents of Tirah have not left their homes voluntarily nor is this a seasonal migration,” he insisted.
He claimed these people were forced to leave their houses in inhospitable conditions in the name of eradicating terrorism.
He reminded the federal ministers that displacement from Tirah started only after an agreement was reached between government officials and a representative jirga of local elders, in which all modalities about transport fare and compensation for damages were sorted out prior to the start of a planned military operation.
Another former parliamentarian from Bara, Shafeeq Afridi, said the statement made a mockery of the sufferings of thousands of children, women and elderly residents of Tirah, who were made to wait in lines for long hours in order to get themselves registered.
He said that describing the current displacement in light of a book written by an English author in 1880 was tantamount to twisting historical facts and misleading the people.
“The federal government cannot absolve itself of its constitutional responsibilities towards its law-abiding citizens by simply referring to history books written by foreigners, as we live in a different Pakistan now,” he stated.
He also questioned the rationale behind the ban on taking edibles to the restive valley, as well as the strict monitoring of the movement of residents in the entire valley. He said women and children were not even allowed to venture out of their homes prior to their displacement.
Bara Siyasi Ittehad President Hashim Khan Afridi, meanwhile, held both the federal and provincial governments responsible for the miseries of the displaced families and insisted that the plan to conducting a military operation and prior evacuation of families was finalised with the mutual consent of both governments.
‘Concocted narrative’
Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry, however, continued to point the finger squarely at the government in Peshawar, claiming that it was concocting a false narrative to “hide its corruption” in the reported Rs4 billion approved for the Tirah residents’ temporary relocation.
“As soon as people were relocated to other places from Tirah, and they [KP govt] were paid Rs4bn, due to which there was noise, and it was found out that their own people had retained more than half of the money for some other purpose, so a baseless narrative was created after that to hide it,” he said in televised remarks on Wednesday.
“Whenever an operation is planned, we will issue a notification and conduct it after informing everyone. We will take everyone onboard. Any kind of new operation or any operation is not taking place in Tirah Valley currently.”
However, the minister added, “If any action is underway in the entire country, from Quetta to Gilgit and Gilgit to Karachi, it is under the National Action Plan (NAP).”
“Each action, each IB (intelligence-based) operation or other action — the KP government is a full participant and onboard with each action taken in KP or any process carried out under the National Action Plan,” he asserted.
The PML-N leader remarked that the “issue is that [the provincial government] wants to do it, but they are scared”.
Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2026
