KHYBER: With a harsh winter and continuous uncertainty staring in their faces, residents in some troubled pockets of the restive Tirah valley are considering vacating their houses in anticipation of a possible military operation as their last hope of a “settlement” with terrorists through jirga met with failure on Oct 13.

Sources in the valley told Dawn that the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s local chapter demands of undiluted implementation of Sharia in the country and their free movement in the erstwhile Fata were a clear manifestation of their rigid belief in armed struggle against the state and mistrust of the state institutions.

They said that they had pinned high hopes on a successful outcome of the Oct 23 jirga in Tirah but the uncompromising TTP attitude had dashed their hopes with fears of a bloody and prolonged war with the security forces becoming more visible.

“There is an air of utter mistrust between security forces and ordinary people as the latter are being looked at with suspicion of being terrorist facilitators, while the terrorists, too, consider them informers of security forces,” a source in Lar Bagh told Dawn.

Fear military operation against terrorists

He added that the residents were so afraid that they could neither blame someone for the current situation nor could they complain about the deteriorating situation.

The sources said ordinary people too were scared of openly discussing the current situation for the fear of being accused of spreading rumours or misinformation about terrorists or being a collaborator of any rival group.

It was also learnt that residents in most parts of the valley were anxiously awaiting the harvest of their ripe cannabis crop while also contemplating a hurried ‘departure’ from their homes to a comparatively safer place with some families having already moved out of the valley during the last one and a half month.

“There is a constant fear of clashes between terrorists and the security forces as terroristshave intensified their armed patrolling of different parts of Tirah in recent weeks which has made the situation grave and worrisome for local residents,” a local source told Dawn.

They said that armed affiliates of TTP, Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group and Lashkar I Islam had divided different localities amongst themselves where they enjoy complete control with local population required to adhere to the strict religious edicts they had forcefully implemented there.

Local residents had become so helpless and dejected that they even started collective prayers and regular recitation of the Holy Quran in front of the Brigade Headquarters in Bagh Maidan for the restoration of an elusive peace in Tirah, according to sources.

Meanwhile, some members of the 100-strong Jirga also narrated a terrified ordeal of their day-long sojourn to Tirah valley on October 13.

They said that the visit was arranged at a time when there was tension on the border with Afghanistan due to armed clashes between the border forces of the two countries while a surge in terrorist attacks in Tirah was also witnessed during recent weeks.

They said that though local elders accorded them a warm welcome, the overall atmosphere was gloomy with fear and desperation written large on the faces of most of the people they had briefly met in Bagh-Maidan.

“I cannot explain the terrified situation, which we confronted during our visit as we saw groups of heavily armed terrorists all along the road from Bagh-Maidan to Kaloona village where we met the TTP local commanders,” said a jirga member.

He said though he had frequently travelled to Tirah since 2015, he had never seen heavily armed terrorists in such a large number before.

The jirga member said that though only the TTP commanders participated in the first ever formal parleys with the Jirga, they had reservations about the role of some Tirah elders whom they mistrusted for being too inclined and favourable towards law-enforcement agencies.

“The cloud of mistrust was however clarified by some non-controversial Jirga members who assured the TTP men that the elders had themselves proposed to the government the holding of talks with terrorists instead of bringing along an official message,” he said.

Another jirga member said that their safe return to Bara in the evening was a huge relief for most of them as they had heard from some local sources in Tirah that a rival terrorist group had planned the abduction of one of the leading jirga members during their return journey.

He said that it was after the TTP armed men took control of all the exit routes that they managed a safe return and the undesirable incident was avoided as the TTP local commander was informed on time about the abduction plan.

“We will have no objection to continuing the process of our negotiations with terrorist groups but the rigid attitude of them [Taliban] had made the success an impossibility,” he contended.

The jirga member said Tirah residents were left with no option but to either resist terrorists or get ready for another ‘migration’.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2025