NORTH WAZIRISTAN: The jirga of Uthmanzai tribe on Wednesday decided to block the main highway and all link roads in North Waziristan tribal district today (Thursday) after talks between elders and senior officials over targeted killings remained inconclusive here.

Deputy commissioner Shahid Ali Khan and senior officers of the administration held several rounds of talks with the protesting Uthmanzai elders but failed to achieve a breakthrough.

Head of the 50-strong committee Malik Rab Nawaz Khan later announced that the protest would be extended to the entire district.

He said under the plan, members of all Uthmanzai clans would block roads in their respective areas from Thursday onward.

Mr Khan also said the jirga also decided about the closure of all bazaars and markets in the district.

Members of the Uthmanzai tribe had begun a protest against targeted killings and the deteriorating law and order situation in the area. In the first phase, they had organised a sit-in in Eidk village near Mirali area around 17 days ago.

Mr Rab Nawaz told reporters that the tribesmen didn’t want to inconvenience the people but the situation forced them to take the extreme step of blocking roads.

He said the district would remain cut off from the rest of the province until their demands were met.

The elder said roads would remain closed at Kajori checkpost and in Shiwa, Spin Wom, Razmak, Datakhel and Khaisur areas.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioner Shahid Ali Khan confirmed an increase in targeted killings in the district but said the administration was taking concrete measures to check those acts.

He told a news conference in Miramshah that 63 incidents of targeted killings and murders had been reported in North Waziristan in the current year.

The deputy commissioner claimed that security forces had killed 105 target killers, terrorists, and their facilitators, and arrested 204 suspects in the area.

He said 42 security officials had embraced martyrdom during operations against target killers and terrorists.

Mr Shahid said the law-enforcement agencies had arrested five ‘target killers’ over the assassination of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Qari Samiuddin and several others.

“Miscreants want to create mistrust between the people and the government,” he said.

District police officer Farhan Khan, who was also in attendance, said 30 of 63 cases of murder reported to the police were actually those of enmity.

He also said four people were killed ‘in the name of honour’.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2022