KHYBER: Thousands of residents of people converged at Bara Bazaar on Sunday to demand of the government to restore peace in Khyber tribal district and provide security to them.

The huge gathering titled Khyber Amn (peace) March was organised by Khyber Siyasi Ittehad. Holding white flags, the participants of the rally marched through the different roads before converging at the main Bara Bazaar.

They demanded of the government to take notice of acts of terrorism, targeted killings of personnel of law enforcement agencies and rising incidents of extortion.

Addressing the emotionally charged crowd, former MNA Malak Waris Khan said that the residents of Khyber were peace loving people and had always raised the slogan of peace but now they could no more tolerate militancy and insecurity. He said that the last decade of militancy from 2005 to 2015 caused huge losses to them.

Ask govt to take notice of terrorism and extortion incidents

He asked the federal government to take steps for ensuring peace in all the tribal districts at the pattern of Islamabad, Lahore and other big cities of the country.

“It is the responsibility of the state to restore peace. We demand of the state authorities to provide a peaceful environment to the people of militancy-affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as they can no more tolerate terrorism and militancy,” said the former lawmaker amid vociferous slogans for peace by the participants of the gathering.

Haji Momin Khan, a local leader of Jamaat-i-Islami, said on the occasion that their youth were the first target of extremism with most of them losing their lives while scores of educational institutions were also destroyed that seriously affected the education of the tribal youth.

Naseeb Gul, a young political activist, said that the peace march awakened the tribal youth of their deep slumber and they were now demanding lasting peace in the entire merged region.

He said that living in peace was a universal right of every human being and people of Khyber in particular and the rest of the merged districts in general were demanding that constitutional right.

Meanwhile, an explosive device, planted outside a mosque, exploded in Bar Qambarkhel area of Bara moments after the end of the peace march.

Police said that the blast caused only minor damage to the outer part of the mosque. They said that a case was registered against unidentified persons.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2022