KOHAT, July 31: The exodus of tribal people from Ghariba locality of Jawaki in Frontier Region of Kohat has picked after increase in attacks of militants at residential areas ahead of the holy month of Ramazan.

The tribesmen from the affected areas told Dawn by telephone that regular rocket and gun attacks especially on volunteers of lashkar forced their families to shift to Kohat district to save their lives.

They appealed to government to provide facilities of transport and ration to their families.

Earlier, the tribesmen had threatened to launch protest against government for its failure to control attacks on their villages. “We have taken control of the strategic mountains between Ghariba and Darra Adamkhel but even then militants come from other secret routes and ambush our villages in the night,” they said.

The officials, when contacted, said that migration of tribal families continued from the area for the past one year. “The militants also fired rockets at checkpost of security forces in the area few days ago without causing any loss,” they said.

Officials said that tribesmen should identify black, who were providing shelter to militants, otherwise attacks would never end. “The attacks are not conducted form across the mountains but from within the Jammu and Jawaki areas,” they said.

Shafarish Khan, a tribal elder, told Dawn that militants came to Jammu town and burnt several houses by sprinkling petrol at them. He said that tribesmen were walking on foot to reach Kohat. He criticised administration for not offering any kind of help to them.

“There is no fire brigade in any of the tribal areas. It resulted in losses to the tune of hundreds of thousands of rupees to the residents as all household items were burnt in the fire last month. Similarly dozens of tribal people including women and children have been killed in rocket attacks since 2008,” he added.