BAJAUR: The elders of Salarzai tehsil in Bajaur district on Thursday announced to oppose the proposed military operation if local lawmakers and politicians were not taken into confidence about it.

They made the announcement at a jirga held in Baramadak area, said a statement.

According to the statement issued by Sikandarzeb Khan, PTI local leader and the elder son of MPA Anwarzeb Khan, said that scores of elders of the region attended the jirga.

The participants of the jirga decided that they would not support the operation in the region until the federal government took local parliamentarians, elders, politicians and people into confidence about it.

They said that authorities should share the name of suspected people with local elders before taking action against them. They said that besides expelling of suspected people from the region, their houses would also be burnet as per tribal tradition if the allegations against them were true.

They said holding of such meetings would continue and a jirga would be held in Batwar area on Sunday.

FIRE: Hundreds of trees and plants were destroyed when a forest caught fire in Barang tehsil of Bajaur district, locals and Rescue 1122 officials said. They said that fire broke out in the Seri Sar Mountain, a popular tourism spot of the region, on Thursday morning due to unknown reasons.

Riaz Ahmad Khan, an official of Rescue 1122, said that a team of firefighters was immediately dispatched to the locality to join locals in extinguishing of the fire.

However, locals and officials said that hundreds of trees and plants were destroyed in the forest before the fire was controlled. They said that different wild birds were also killed in the forest. A forest official said that most of the destroyed trees and plants were planted by the local forest department several years ago. He said that forest department decided to launch a proper investigation into the incident soon.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2024