Khyber militants step up attacks

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PESHAWAR – Militants in Khyber Agency and border areas in Peshawar remain active despite comparative peace in most parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in recent months.

Apart from an attack on the office of the district police officer in Dera Ismail Khan January 14 that killed three civilians, a cop and four suicide bombers and wounded eight other people, no major terrorist acts occurred in KP or any part of FATA during the final quarter of 2011 or during the first half of January.

However, militants are active in Khyber Agency, which borders Peshawar to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Mohmand Agency to the north and Orakzai Agency and Dara Adamkhel to the south.

High death tolls January 11 and 13

Clashes between the Zakhakhel tribe and the Mangal Bagh-led militant organisation, Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), have been a violent fact of life for years. However, terrorists deepened the tribe’s agony by bombing a Jamrud bus stand January 11. They stormed the Frontier Constabulary (FC) and police’s Riaz Shaheed check-post January 13 to avenge the capture of more than 65 terrorist suspects one day earlier in Akakhel.

The Jamrud attack killed about 30 people, reportedly mostly Zakhakhel tribesmen, while the second killed two policemen, a Frontier Constabulary soldier, and seven insurgents.

"There are tips ... that they are regrouping in Khyber Agency to carry out more attacks in Peshawar," Peshawar Cantonment Superintendent of Police Dr. Mian Saeed Ahmed told Central Asia Online.

Authorities have strengthened check-posts on the Khyber Agency border and have armed their personnel with heavy weapons, while directing police in Peshawar to stay alert, he said.

“We have further reinforced our posts jointly manned with police to foil any future attack on security establishment close to Khyber Agency,” said Abdul Majeed Marwat, the FC commandant. His men regularly raid the area between Peshawar and Khyber Agency with police and other forces, he said.

Terrorists said to have disguises

Intelligence agencies have warned police that terrorists might wear police or army uniforms, so all uniformed strangers will need to be frisked before they can enter government buildings.

Some reports accuse Khyber Agency miscreants of killing an abducted doctor, Said Jamal Hussain, earlier in January as a reprisal for a search operation that security forces conducted in different areas. Hussain was kidnapped two months earlier in Peshawar.

An anti-militant lashkar peace committee leader in Akakhel, Haji Kaleem, also was killed in Peshawar in January, hinting at the involvement of Khyber Agency-based militants.

Khyber Agency has suffered for years not only from Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) terrorism but also from long-standing internecine warfare among LI, Ansar ul Islam and Tauheed ul Islam. LI has made the Zakhakhel tribe, settled mostly in the remote Tirah Valley, and the Akakhel tribe near Dara Adamkhel its prime victims.

Mass exodus

Thousands of Khyber Agency families already have migrated to Peshawar since the government deployed forces against militants in the area.

“The situation in Khyber Agency has been volatile for the last couple of years,” Hakim Khan, an Akakhel tribesman from Frontier Road in Khyber Agency, said. “Except for a few, all boys’ and girls’ schools and colleges have been closed since June 2009. More than 40% of the population of the Bara sub-division has migrated to Peshawar and other places.”

Attacks have damaged most houses on Frontier Road, he added.

Many of the displaced Khyber Agency families are staying in the Jalozai refugee camp for internally displaced people, while others have rented houses or moved in with relatives throughout Peshawar.

“We have shifted to Peshawar following terror attacks and possible operations by the security forces against these elements,” said one displaced resident, Abdul Malik, of Bara. Many of his relatives moved to Hayatabad, Achini, Pishtakhara and other parts of Peshawar after they fled Khyber, he said.

Authorities determined

The government refuses to cede Khyber Agency to terrorists.

“We are carrying out search operations in Khyber Agency almost every day,” said Khyber Agency Political Agent Mutahir Zeb. “The forces have been alerted, and we are going to establish four more security posts for the Frontier Corps to keep an eye on the militants and to counter attacks.”

An operation against miscreants after the Sarband attack was deadly for one Khasadar, but it led to the arrest of several suspects, he said.

The military launched four separate anti-militant operations in Bara in 2008 and 2009. However, the militants have been tenacious, targeting troops, police, schoolchildren and other civilians throughout 2011.

Last year, militants blew up two vehicles carrying passengers to Akakhel in June and August (killing 13 people), killed four schoolchildren and their van driver in a rocket and automatic-weapons attack in Matani in September, and killed nine troops in an attack on a check post near Akakhel in October while losing 10 of their own men.

They have raided FC-police joint check-posts in Sarband, Badhaber, Matani, Sheikhan, Regi and other areas. Security forces intend to make the terrorists pay. The January 13 raid on the Sarband check post failed, for example, leaving at least seven militants dead.

The dead militants included Ashgharay, a feared sniper who was said to be training other militants in marksmanship. Political activities continue in KP because the spirit of peace prevails, KP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said.

“But the terrorists are trying to strike whenever they get any opportunity,” he warned. “The fresh attacks are not something new, and such incidents would happen until the terrorism is completely uprooted.”

However, “We assure people that our determination cannot be suppressed. At least we in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are not negotiating with any militant group. For complete peace, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other powers have to work together and avoid negotiating separately with the Taliban,” he said.