LANDI KOTAL: The persistent technical faults and close observation of telephone calls have made telephonic contacts with outside world an arduous task for majority population of Tirah valley of Khyber Agency.

The residents of Tirah mostly rely on 20 public call offices (PCOs), established by local people after getting telephone connections from Pakistan Telecommunication with prior permission from security officials.

The owners of PCOs in Lar Bagh Markaz, a local commercial centre, told Dawn that in the absence of any mobile phone service in Tirah valley, people came from far-off localities to talk to their near and dear ones living in other cities of the country and abroad.

The PCO owners charge Rs50 per minute for an overseas telephone call while Rs10 is charged for one-minute call to any city inside Pakistan. “We have maximum callers on Thursday and Friday as we have weekly mela [fair] at Bagh Markaz on these days. People from all parts of the valley come here for buying daily use commodities and also avail the opportunity to make telephone calls to their relatives and friends,” they said.

Technical faults, vigil by security personnel have made telephonic contact with outside world difficult

They said that in the absence of electricity, they had installed solar panels on the nearby hilltops for running their PCOs. They said that they had also recruited watchmen for guarding the solar system. “The installation of solar system and recruitment of watchmen have put additional financial burden on us. We equally share the expenses,” they added.

The PCO owners said that they faced persistent technical faults as the main base of PTCL was installed in a far-off locality in Orakzai Agency. It caused disruption of line, they said. They added that such faults also added to the miseries of the callers in times of emergency.

They said that in the absence of technical staff in the valley, they had to take their telephone sets to either Kohat or Peshawar for repair but they faced difficulty in doing so as security forces didn’t allow them easily to take the faulty equipment out of the valley without permission.

Security forces stationed in the valley also keep vigil on these PCOs. They have directed the PCO owners not to allow strangers or suspected people to make calls from their phone sets.

“We write down the name and father’s name of every caller. We ask them to furnish a copy of their national identity card and only then they are allow them to dial the number of their choice,” a PCO owner told this scribe at Lar Bagh Markaz. Requesting anonymity, he said that security personnel along with officials of political administration had warned the PCO owners of sending them to jail, sealing their business and imposing a fine if they allowed suspected persons to use their telephones. “Luckily no one has so far been penalised for violating these restrictions, imposed by the authorities concerned,” he added.

When asked if women were allowed to visit their PCOs and use the telephones, he said that they had installed separate telephone sets for them inside their houses where a female member of their family assisted the women callers to use the telephone.

The communication system in the area prior to takeover of Tirah by army was controlled by Ansarul Islam, a pro-government local militant group. But it too had imposed certain restrictions on telephone users and PCO owners.

“They would charge us a monthly amount alongside restricting us not to allow activists from opponent group [Lashkar-i-Islam] to use our phones,” said owner of another PCO.

“The entire communication system collapsed after Taliban took over the valley in 2013. It was restored when displaced families of Tirah came back last year,” said the PCO owners.

None of the mobile phone companies have so far extended their operations to Tirah.

A mobile phones dealer told this scribe that local youth came to them in large number to upload music and videos of their choice in the mobile sets. “These young men got accustomed with the use of mobile phone when they migrated to different settled districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after Taliban captured Tirah. Here they use it for entertainment,” he added.

The PCO owners, some of whom belonged to Sikh community, demanded of the government to ensure supply of electricity to the entire valley and ease restrictions on use of telephone. They also urged the mobile phone companies to extend their services to the area.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2016