• Federal ministers term displacement ‘seasonal migration’; say issue is being politicised
• Kh Asif says 400-500 TTP fighters present in valley ‘being dealt with through IBOs’
• KP CM calls for Jirga of all Khyber tribes to settle ‘mystery behind their evacuation’
• Rails against ‘injustice with people of KP’; claims displacement was ‘imposed’ on people of his home district

ISLAMABAD / PESHAWAR: The federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments continued to escalate their war of words over the displacement of Tirah residents, with the former dismissing reports of a military operation in the area, and the latter reiterating the claim that “harsh conditions” had been imposed on the people of the valley.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, Defence Mini­ster Khawaja Asif said there had been no large-scale military operation in Tirah for several years, but acknowledged the prese­n­ce of around 400 to 500 members of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the valley.

However, he said the military was dealing with the threat through targeted intelligence-based actions, rather than broad operations.

Flanked by Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and the PM’s coordinator on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa affairs, Ikhtiar Wali Khan, he said: “There is no question of an operation in Tirah”.

He admitted that intelligence-based operations (IBOs) against terrorists continued, but large offensives were not taking place, as the former resulted in lesser collateral damage.

“This is why this practice has been ongoing there for many years, and that is why there is no question of any operation there,” the defence minister added.

He also termed the recent movement of residents from the remote mountainous area a routine, seasonal migration and not a security driven evacuation.

Mr Asif said residents of several valleys along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had for decades migrated during winter months because of snowfall and extreme weather, returning in the summer.

He described the current movement as part of that long-standing pattern, saying it was even documented in records dating back to the British colonial era.

Information Minister Tarar echoed these remarks, and cited historical accounts that described seasonal migration by Afridi and Akakhel tribes as an established practice.

‘Politicised’

The defence minister said that this matter had been “politicised”, asserting that an impression had been created as if “forced relocation” had been taking place in Tirah.

“And it is being linked to us. Even if forced displacement is taking place, it is between the provincial government and the population. We or the military have nothing to do with it.

Asked who formed the jirga that held talks regarding the evacuation of people from Tirah, Asif insisted that it was the provincial government.

He maintained that a Rs4 billion assistance package approved for those leaving Tirah was also the initiative of the provincial government, following consultations with a local Jirga of tribal elders.

Meanwhile, Mr Wali questioned how much of the provincial aid package had actually reached displaced families and alleged the issue was being politicised.

Mr Asif said the federal government was willing to support the province if it sought help to improve living conditions in Tirah, but insisted that portraying the migration as forced or linked to a military operation was misleading. “This is being turned into a crisis,” he said.

He also criticised the provincial government for what he called a lack of basic services in the area, including schools, hospitals and police stations, and accused it of trying to shift responsibility for governance failures onto the military.

The defence minister alleged that illegal cultivation of cannabis on thousands of acres in Tirah was a major source of tension and claimed proceeds from the trade benefited militants and political interests.

He said the government had begun steps to curb this practice so the proceeds could instead benefit local residents and be used to build schools and hospitals. He further alleged that elements within the provincial government shared interests with the TTP in jointly exploiting the hemp trade in Tirah.

‘Injustice with people of KP’

The remarks by the federal ministers only seemed to stoke tensions with the PTI’s provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In a video statement issued in Pashto after the presser in Islamabad, KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi railed against what he called “injustice” with the people of Tirah, and called for holding a grand jirga at Jamrud Stadium on Sunday.

CM Afridi, himself a Khyber native from the Afridi clan, asked representatives of all Khyber tribes to attend the gathering, where they would be asked whether they had left their homes voluntarily or were forced to do so.

“Harsh conditions have once again been imposed on Tirah Valley,” he said, adding that he had raised his voice against “imposing decisions” that were taken without the public consent and questioned the logic of launching another operation when “22 major and more than 14,000 IBOs had failed to eliminate terrorism”.

The KP CM recalled that a Jirga held at the KP Assembly had finalised a 15-point agenda. He said the Jirga also unanimously agreed that a military operation was not a solution and that sustainable peace could only be achieved through dialogue and consensus.

Despite that, he said, another “operation was being imposed”. The CM also claimed that the 24-member committee that was said to have held talks on a military operation in Tirah was headed by the Peshawar corps commander and the Frontier Corps inspector general.

“Afridi elders were told to vacate their houses on the pretext of militants operating from residential areas. Despite people’s objections, they were forced to leave their homes during the harsh winter and amid snowfall.

“And the world is now witnessing elderly people, women, and children being displaced in freezing conditions while the operation, too, cannot be carried out due to snowfall,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2026