PESHAWAR/KHYBER: Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi on Sunday strongly condemned death of four civilians in Tirah valley and called the ‘collateral damage’ incompetence of security personnel deployed in of Khyber tribal district.

“Once again, innocent people have been targeted by security forces in Tirah. I strongly condemn this. Four innocent civilians were martyred and five were injured. This collateral damage is due to the incompetence of security personnel deployed there,” the chief minister said in a statement issued on X, former Twitter.

He stated that provincial government stood with the families of martyrs and injured, and would not leave them alone in that time of grief.

Also, Pakistan Tekreeh-i-Insaf (PTI) strongly condemned the incident and termed martyrdom of civilians in Tirah ‘extremely regrettable’. The provincial chapter of the party, in a statement issued on Sunday, said that targeting innocent civilians in the name of collateral damage was unacceptable in any case.

Victims laid to rest as differences erupt among protesters

“Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Khyber Pakhtunkhwa strongly condemns this incident and demands that a transparent and impartial investigation should be conducted into it so that facts can come to light and those responsible identified,” it said.

The party condoled to the families of the martyrs and prayed for speedy recovery of injured persons.

“It is the responsibility of state institutions to ensure protection of lives and property of citizens at all costs and take effective measures to prevent such incidents,” said the statement.

It said that protection of human lives was the top most responsibility of state and any kind of negligence would not be tolerated.

Meanwhile, relatives of the five persons killed after mortar fire in Tirah on Saturday, called off a protest demonstration and buried the dead bodies after differences surfaced among protesters in Bara tehsil of Khyber district, over the mode of protest.

Sources in Bara said that relatives of victims accompanied by MNA Iqbal Afridi, activists of Bara Siyasi Ittehad, tehsil chairman and councillors along with scores of locals placed the coffins of the five dead persons at the main Bara Chowk late on Saturday evening to register their protest over the loss of human lives in a mortar attack in Akkakhel area of Tirah, bordering Orakzai.

Disagreement surfaced among the leaders of protesters as one group wanted the dead bodies to be taken to Peshawar while another group insisted to defer shifting of the bodies to the provincial capital till Sunday in order to gather sufficient number of protesters.

Frustrated with endless arguments between the two groups, members of the aggrieved families decided to take back the dead bodies to Tirah for burial at midnight.

Sources said that commissioner of Peshawar and deputy commissioner of Khyber also met both the family members of victims and leaders of protesters and offered their condolences over the loss human lives.

Five persons including two children and three adults lost their lives while five more received injuries when a moving vehicle was hit by a mortar shell in Endra locality of Akkakhel area near the Orakzai border.

Sources said that some Akkakhel tribesmen were on way to their homes in a pickup vehicle after purchasing essential daily use items including food for Iftar when their vehicle was hit by a mortar shell.

A group of agitated local residents along with relatives of the deceased men and children then brought the dead bodies to Bara late on Saturday and announced that the dead would not be buried till an impartial inquiry was conducted into the incident and those responsible for the incident were booked under law.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2026