KHYBER: Zwan Kukikhel Ittehad (ZKI), a youth organisation of Kukikhel tribe in Jamrud, on Sunday rejected their displacement in anticipation of a military operation in Rajgal area of Tirah Valley.

Addressing a news conference at Jamrud Press Club, ZKI president Sanaullah and his colleagues Shakir Afridi, Eshfaq Afridi and Sadiq Afridi threatened to hold a protest demonstration if Kukikhel tribesmen were again forced to leave their houses in Rajgal and surrounding areas, close to border with Afghanistan.

They said that thousands of Kukikhel families, who had been displaced from their houses in 2012, only recently returned to their homes and started rehabilitation on their own with limited resources while bearing excessive hardships.

The ZKI leaders alleged that military operations were conducted in different parts of the restive Tirah Valley on the pretext of purging the region of militants and proscribed groups but no lasting peace could be restored despite evacuation of thousands of families in 2012 with most of them returning to their homes at their own risk.

They said that they were given firm assurance about the rehabilitation of the previously displaced families with the launch of various development projects in their areas but none of those promises were fulfilled while they were now asked again to leave their houses in the name of a military operation.

They said that the resurgence of militants in Rajgal was a question mark as to where from those people came to the region when the returned families were assured of a successful military operation.

They asked security forces to eliminate the menace of terrorism and establish lasting peace in Rajgal.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2026