PESHAWAR: Awami National Party’s parliamentary leader in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Sardar Hussain Babak on Tuesday asked the government to investigate the alleged harassment of a family by security personnel in Khaisor village of Mirali tehsil in North Waziristan.

Mr Babak, who is provincial general secretary of the party, submitted a call-attention notice to the KP Assembly, drawing the attention of the house to the Khaisoor incident after a video interview of a young boy went viral on social media.

In the video interview, Hayat, a resident of Khaisor village, tells another local youngster how the family has been facing harassment due to frequent visits by two personnel to his home after his father and brother were picked up by security forces. He says he is the only male member at home and the two security personnel, he names one of them, frequently enter his house unannounced.

Notice submitted to draw KP Assembly attention to young boy’s appeal

He requests the authorities to take action to stop these unwanted visits. He says his father and brother might not be freed but the security personnel’s visits should be stopped, as there are women in his house.

The interview that went viral on social media resulted in large protests in Mirali on Sunday. The protesters demanded that security personnel violating privacy and sanctity of homes be punished.

Leader of a Pashtun civil rights movement Manzoor Pashteen and MNA from North Waziristan Mohsin Dawar also showed support to the boy and called for urgent measures to bring an end to such harassment and violation of their privacy.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the ANP provincial general secretary asked the government to break its silence on the issues pertaining to privacy of homes and honour of families, investigate the incident and punish the culprits.

He regretted that the heads of majority of political parties had been silent on the harassment, while the government was yet to take notice of the incident.

An innocent child’s plea should have been taken seriously by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers, but they failed to show any interest in the matter, which was regretful, he said.

Mr Babak said it was unbearable that the sanctity of home and privacy of a family was being violated. Keeping mum over the harassment would add to the woes of tribal districts. He called upon the government to take immediate notice of the incident and order an inquiry into it. The culprits should be punished, he demanded.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019