KHYBER: Kukikhel elders from the militancy-affected Rajgal region have rejected creation of peace committees and insisted that peace has already been restored in the bordering region through successful military operations.

They were speaking at a jirga held in the Kukikhel-inhabited area of Mehraban Kallay near Rajgal. The jirga session was attended by tribal elders, elected councillors, representatives of political parties and a large number of recently-returned displaced persons.

Malik Faizullah Jan said on the occasion that the army and police personnel were already deployed in the region and there was no need of formation of any additional tribal peace committees.

He said that Kukikhel tribe already had their dispute resolution bodies while they also assisted the security forces and district administration in maintenance of peace and resolution of disputes.

Say peace has been restored in Rajgal region

He criticised the provincial government for its failure to announce special development package for the recently-returned Kukikhel displaced families.

Mr Jan said that most of the returned families were residing in damaged houses due to nonpayment of compensation to them while the damage assessment process was painfully slow.

Another tribal elder Malik Abdul Zahir said that a big amount of money was required to rebuild the entire damaged infrastructure in Rajgal and surrounding localities as the returned families were faced with the shortage of all basic amenities of life.

Demanding an increase in the compensation amount for Kukikhel families, he said that prices of construction materials had multiplied manifold during the last few months and they were unable to build even a single small room with Rs400,000 that was fixed by the Provincial Disaster Management Authority a few years ago for reconstruction of an extensively damaged house.

He also demanded installation of mobile phone towers in the affected areas.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2022