KHYBER: The registration and arrival of newly-displaced families from Tirah to Bara was suspended on Monday for several hours as hundreds of enraged Zakhakhel tribesmen blocked the main Tirah-Bara road in protest against official refusal to register them as internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Sources in Tirah told Dawn that scores of Zakhakhel tribesmen from Bazaar-Zakhakhel area blocked the road in Paindi Cheena and forcibly disrupted the Nadra registration process when news about refusal of their registration reached the area.
They said that with most Zakhakhel families residing in pockets of Tirah valley possessing CNICs from Landi Kotal tehsil, Nadra staff both in Bagh Maidan and Paindi Cheena refused their registration on ‘technical’ grounds as they were given instruction about registration of families having their CNICs issued from Tirah and Bara.
The issue suddenly sparked a violent protest by Zakhakhel tribesmen, duly backed by armed volunteers of the so-called Zakhakhel peace committee, who forcibly disrupted the biometric process of the newly-arrived IDPs along with blocking the main road to Bara.
Terrorists obstruct evacuation of locals from Tirah
Sources said that armed volunteers of the so-called peace committee in fact wanted their own ‘men’ from Bazaar-Zakhakhel area registered as IDPs in order to grab monetary benefits, which the authorities had pledged to the 24-member representative jirga of Tirah elders prior to start of evacuation.
There were also reports that a number of individuals, who had long been settled in Bara and Peshawar but also had their ancestral properties and old homes in Tirah, also rushed to the registration points both in Bagh Maidan and Paindi Cheena to ‘secure’ their share of the official largess.
Officials had earlier said that every family would be paid Rs22,000 for transportation the moment it left its home in Tirah and a mobile SIM card would be given to it after biometric verification at Paindi Cheena registration centre.
These families were also entitled to Rs250,000 as cash grant through their mobile SIMS and another Rs50,000 as monthly stipend, which also covered their daily expenses along with rent of the house, if they had to rent a house in Bara or elsewhere.
Also in the day, more displaced families held a protest demonstration at the newly-established Mandi Kas centre, which was set up on Monday for distribution of promised transport fare among the newly-arrived families.
Protesting families alleged that they were either issued empty tokens or were not given the promised amount on time with mismanagement at Bagh Maidan centre where the district administration officials conducted verification of every leaving family.
However, the protests ended after visits to both Paindi Cheena and Mandi Kas by Deputy Commissioner Rae Bilal Shahid, DPO Waqar Ahmad and MPA from Bara Abdul Ghani.
Officials said that every leaving family would be issued a token for transport fare at Bagh Maidan Markaz after thorough verification by the district administration officials while the amount would be paid at Mandi Kas centre upon arrival of every family.
Simplifying the registration process to the convenience of displaced families, the Nadra centre at Paindi Cheena was authorised to issue mobile SIM cards after conducting the biometric verification of every displaced person.
Sources said that former federal minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi along with members of Tirah jirga played an important role in ratifying loopholes in the registration process while also recommending to the district administration and Nadra staff to address the thorny issue of Zakhakhel families residing in Tirah for several decades.
Meanwhile, sources said that armed terrorists affiliated with proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-i-Islam and Hafiz Gul Bahadar group were still obstructing the evacuation of scores of distraught families in different parts of Tirah.
They said that terrorist groups wanted to use locals as human shield in case of a military operation. They also wanted locals to stay in order to provide them with food and shelter, they added.
Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2026