Tearful tribesmen bury more bodies US strikes in Waziristan leaves 14 dead Monitoring Desk

Miranshah: American drone has killed 13 in an attack in the northern Waziristan early on Friday morning, officials said. The attack was carried out at a house in Janikhel area of the region, said an officials. Maulvi Abdullah, a regional Taliban militant has also confirmed to Pajhwok News Agency that at least 13 fighters in the early morning attack. Militants have rented the house for training their fellows, the self proclaimed militant said. Bombing by American pilotless drone in the tribal region bordering the neighbouring Afghanistan has increased despite the disagreement of Pakistani authorities. Four missiles were fired at the camp, in Kumsham village, some 35 kilometres south of Miranshah in North Waziristan province. Security sources said the village is dominated by Wazir tribes and is near the border with South Waziristan. "Between 11 to 14 militants, mainly foreigners, were killed in the strike," a senior military official told media on condition of anonymity. Local official Attiq-ur Rehman also confirmed the strike but gave a different death toll. "There was a missile strike in the Kumsham village and it destroyed a compound, 13 people were killed," he said. An intelligence official added: "The strike successfully destroyed the camp." "The militants were using the facility for training," another said. Maulvi Abdullah, a regional Taliban militant has also confirmed killing of 13 fighters in the early morning attack. Militants have rented the house for training their fellows, the self proclaimed militant said. Bombing by American pilotless drones in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan has increased despite the disagreement of Pakistani authorities. Meanwhile, sixteen militants were killed on Friday as PAF planes bombarded several suspected Taliban hideouts in a restive northwest tribal region, officials said. Jets pounded the towns of Damadola, Sewai and Sipra in Bajaur district where forces have clashed with Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants for the past three months, local administration official Jamil Khan told media. Another security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 16 Taliban militants were killed. The toll may rise as the jets repeatedly bombed the suspected bases, he added. Fourteen people were killed in air strikes in Bajaur on Thursday and 15 extremists died in similar raids on Wednesday, according to local officials. Security officials said the bombing campaign has been stepped up as land forces were planning a ground offensive in these towns where militants are said to have underground bunkers. In another tragic incident, the unidentified armed men fired three missiles at an army camp in Wana from nearby mountains on Friday. Security forces retaliated with automatic and heavy weapons. The firing between the security forces and the militants continued for an hour, however no report of loss of life has been received so far. Political administration while confirming the incident said that investigation is in progress. In Swat, the security forces are continuing operation against the militants and sporadic firing is still going on. The administration has imposed an indefinite curfew in the area. The people are leaving the homes in Matta tehsil, Kabal and Chahar Bagh. Ttwo tribesmen sustained critical injuries when one of them hit a landmine at Shahshu village in Lower Kurram Agency on Friday. An official of political administration said that Sultan Khan and Zahoor were coming from fields as one of them laid foot on roadside landmine. Resultantly, both sustained injuries and were rushed to hospital. President Asif Ali Zardari while condemning the missile attack in North Waziristan expressed grief and sorrow over the loss of life. In North Waziristan on Friday, at least ten people were killed and five others injured in the US spy planes missiles attack in Qamasham area of Razmak Tehsil. The missiles also destroyed two houses whereas all the dead and injured were local people. Saturday, November 08, 2008,  Zi'qad 09, 1429 A.H.

Editorial: Bajaur: attacking the jirgas

Editorial: Bajaur: attacking the jirgas

The Salarzai tribe that had begun to oppose the Taliban in Bajaur has been attacked near the town of Khar, the headquarters of Bajaur tribal agency. Their jirga was attacked by a suicide bomber who rushed into the gathering of elders and exploded himself on Wednesday. In all 22 elders were killed, including the leaders and commanders of the lashkar (militia) that they had put together to fight and expel the Taliban and their affiliated “foreigners” from the area. Forty-five members of the 300-strong council of elders were wounded.

An organisation of obscure origin has claimed the deed. This is a pattern and tells us how the Taliban and their patron Al Qaeda have come under pressure lately from the jirgas and reacted. In March, they had to massacre a jirga in Darra Adam Khel and last month they repeated the deed on a jirga in Orakzai agency, killing over a hundred elders. This is stage two of the strategy employed by the terrorists. They began by killing the maliks and single individuals of influence in the Tribal Areas to replace the traditional system of self-governance. Stage two is now upon us and is more problematic.

The jirga remains the apex of the system of authority among the tribes. When the maliks were being killed, the jirgas remained silent, linking the killings to “injustice” in Afghanistan. But as the Taliban began to impose their rule over them with punishments serving as instruments of fear, public reaction to them began to change. The problem was that the state at that time was not around to reassure them that they would be supported if they defied the terrorist regime. But now in Bajaur, for the first time, the Taliban and their “foreigners” are getting hurt in their confrontation with the Pakistan army, as is apparent from the suing for peace by Baitullah Mehsud, their “caliph” in South Waziristan. So now the tribes and jirgas are beginning to reassert themselves.

The Salarzai showed patience when their economy was being demolished and their schools were being pulled down by the Taliban. But after the army began operations in Bajaur, the Salarzai began to express their true response to the Taliban, something that has not happened elsewhere in the Tribal Areas, either because the military operations there have been fitful or have not succeeded. Therefore the attack on the Salarzai jirga clearly shows a new trend in the adventure story of the Taliban-Al Qaeda combine: they are becoming unpopular among the tribesmen and trying to cow them down by attacking their jirgas.

But the jirga killings are simply going to damage the Taliban’s cause further. Nowhere was the popular reaction against the “foreign” terrorists more intense than in the Malakand division (Swat, Dir, etc). But the people there were “softened” in favour of the Taliban by the MMA government in Peshawar which ruled in the area, just as it did not encourage the people of FATA to rise against the terrorists. Thus when the elections rolled around, the Swatis clearly indicted the MMA government for not looking after them. They also began to condemn the government when the military operations inflicted a lot of damage on them without eliminating the terrorists. So the fear factor came in and their message was: leave us to the mercies of the Taliban.

Fortunately, things changed after the exit of President Pervez Musharraf from the scene and his policy of mollifying the MMA because it helped him stay in power through the 17th Amendment. With the PPP in power in Islamabad and an apolitical army chief in the person of General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani heading the army, the scene has changed for the better and the pressure on the Taliban has started to build up. This must be kept up and, more importantly, other tribal agencies should be brought under military operations.

South Waziristan, where the last military operation in May this year discovered the “suicide academy” where suicide-bombers were trained for the whole of Pakistan, is back in the hands of Baitullah Mehsud whose second marriage was celebrated by subservient tribesmen on the occasion of last Eid to show that he was still the “caliph”. Kurram Agency is also a place gradually going out of the territorial jurisdiction of Pakistan. Since Peshawar failed to re-establish the traffic on the road going to Parachinar, the agency’s economy has become connected to Afghanistan. If you want to send food and medicines to Parachinar, you have to first smuggle them to Afghanistan. Since the Pakistani state could not come to the help of the besieged tribes there, their co-tribals from Afghanistan are coming in to defend them. This is not a situation which Islamabad can take for very long.

Attacking the jirgas is a sign of weakness in the Taliban “movement”. More and more tribesmen are going to turn against them as their elders are exterminated. More citizens’ militias will be formed against the Taliban; but the terrorists will be rolled back only if the Pakistan army goes in and helps its own people to defend themselves. This is the war that Pakistan has to fight, and from it hangs the prospect of what will happen in the region in the coming weeks and months. *

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Genocide of indigenous people of Parachinar,Kurram Agency in Pakistan by Taliban

Genocide of indigenous people of Parachinar,Kurram Agency in Pakistan by Taliban

Currently, over half a million of people residing in Kurram Agency of tribal areas of Pakistan are facing a catastrophic genocide due to the complicity or ineffectiveness of the Government of Pakistan to establish the rule of law in the Kurram Agency. These people living in the Kurram Agency on the Pak-Afghan Border, are the indigenous population facing the wrath of the extremist militants known as Taliban across the region. The crime of these indigenous people is that they do not subscribe to the ideology of Taliban.

Parachinar is the headquarter of the Kurram Agency, one of the FATA agencies in the North Frontier areas of Pakistan near the Afghanistan border.  This agency is surrounded by other tribal agencies where Taliban and their supporters have strong hold.  But they still have to take over the headquarters of Kurram Agency to establish their complete rule in the region. Violence is their major tactic, including shooting down straight away, beheading or lynching to death. Most of their opponents either have left the areas or submitted to Taliban rule.

The world has become alive to the grave threat of the terrorism to the civilised world since the attacks on the twin towers of New York on 11 September, 2001. But the terrorism perpetrated by those very forces which are now identified as Al-Qaeda and Taliban, is not new to several areas of the tribal belt, known as Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). It has been playing havoc since the 1980s when the Western world had complicity colluded with the “Mujahideen” to wage a covert war against the Soviet forces that had occupied Afghanistan.

The Mujahideen, with their extremist Islamic worldview, continued to perpetuate in Afghanistan, as well as in Pakistani tribal areas even after the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan. Later, they surfaced in the form of the Taliban and took over the whole of Afghanistan. Their counterparts in Pakistani tribal areas also tried to impose the Taliban brand of Islam in these areas, but faced resistance from the local people of Parachinar Kurram Agency.

The Taliban have been killing and plundering the villages around Parachinar and pose a grave threat to the existence of its indigenous people. It’s only people of Parachinar who have been guarding their “Taliban-free” character, and that’s the main reason that the Taliban are bent upon destroying these local people. It’s Parachinar which has got the highest literacy rate in the tribal areas where girls also go to schools, something the Taliban do not tolerate!

These indigenous people of Parachinar had been subjected to many attacks since the 1960s, but now, since 2007, not only the people of Parachinar have been attacked by the Taliban several times, roads coming to this town have also been blockaded by Taliban and their supporters. The Pakistan Government has been complacent or actively complicit in the whole affair on the side of one party, the Taliban, who through violent means are trying to increase their control over the Kurram Agency.

In April 2007, 60 people were killed when Taliban attacked the Parachinar city. Later, the authorities imposed a curfew and no one was allowed to move in or out of the Parachinar town for over two months. This was the first indication of the Taliban infiltration in the Kurram Agency. The Taliban want to use the Kurram Agency like other bordering towns and areas to carry out their insurgency along with Afghan Taliban across the border against the Kabul Administration and NATO forces.

However, the peace loving people of Parachinar opposed the Taliban who had become infuriated and had started taking revenge for their failure by attacking, blockading, kidnapping and beheading innocent people to terrorize their opponents. Since then, there has not been a single day when violence has not struck the Parachinar valley. In November 2007, the Taliban and their supporters, again, attacked the people of Parachinar. This attack left 75 people dead and over 300 wounded. Since then, there has been no reprieve for the people of Parachinar.

Due to the complicity of the minion officials of the local security agencies, and ineffective policies at the higher level, the Taliban were so much emboldened that they started attacking in front of security forces. On 16 April 2008, a convoy of 20-25 vehicles accompanied by the security forces, including the Pakistani Army, was attacked by the Taliban at a town known as Sadda, which falls on the main road between Parachinar and Peshawar.  Four people were killed of the convoy, but the security forces remained silent, perhaps they were not ordered to take any action against the Taliban.

Organized ambushes and attacks aside, the Taliban also carried out two suicide bomber attacks on the people of Parachinar, one on 14 August 2007 and the other on 16 February, 2008, killing 15 and 58 people respectively. It has also been ascertained by the local people of Parachinar that as much as 40 people were slaughtered on different occasions from the only main road link between Parachinar and Peshawar. The Taliban last year took over a contingent of Pakistan security forces spared all of them but beheaded one of them. His only crime was that he belonged to Parachinar.

Recently secondary school examinations were postponed by the Pakistan government because the authorities were not able to maintain law and order situation in Kurram agency. But students in a very unusual way came out on the road and demanded for the holding of exams because they did not want to waste their academic year. Pakistan authorities later restored the examination schedule. But during the examination, two students of village Alizai of the Kurram Agency, were kidnapped by the Taliban. One of them was shot dead straight away, while the other was slaughtered by them at a grave of one of their dead collaborators near village Bagzai.

Moreover, during the same period, the Pakistan Army also killed two local people who were returning to their home. An ambulance carrying patients to a Peshawar from Parachinar was attacked with a rocket-propelled gun by Taliban on a main road. This resulted in the death of seven people including several women. Nowadays Taliban have started target killing of the people of Parachinar who are living, studying and working in Peshawar and other cities of the country. The Pakistani government, as well as its army failed to take any action against Taliban to stop the killings of innocent people. Locals say that the Taliban are being supported by Pakistani government which has given them a free hand for some other gains best known to the authorities.

Posted by hasnain

http://hasnain.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/stop-the-humanitarian-crisis-in-parachinaar-pakistan/

Almost one million people of Parachinar remain stranded for more than a year by the criminals of Taliban, Sipah-e-Sahaba & Al-Qaeda,

Almost one million people of Parachinar remain stranded for more than a year by the criminals of Taliban, Sipah-e-Sahaba & Al-Qaeda

Appeal for help to the international community

PESHAWAR: Delay in reopening road delays return of peace to Kurram

By Zulfiqar Ali

PESHAWAR, Oct 23: Delay in reopening of Thall-Parachinar Road despite an agreement, reached between the warring tribes of Kurram tribal region in Murree on Oct 16, is likely to shatter people’s confidence.

Under the peace agreement, signed by the rival parties, a 30-member jirga had to proceed to Parachinar on Wednesday last by road to end yearlong blockade of the area bordering Afghanistan.

Former federal minister Malik Waris Khan Afridi, who is leading the jirga, told Dawn that plan had been revised and mediators comprising notables and former parliamentarians from Fata and Hangu district along with 34 local elders were likely to go to Parachinar on Saturday.

“Both parties want lasting peace and have agreed to reopen the main road and resolve the disputes. Now this is the government’s responsibility to facilitate the process for the jirga to proceed to the area by road in order to rebuild confidence of the local people,” he maintained.

He said that further delay in reopening of the main road might shatter peace process, adding that according to the agreement negligence on the part of the local administration or any other government agency might be considered a deliberate move to sabotage the peace process.

“If administration takes jirga members to Parachinar by helicopters then it will not serve the purpose and will spoil all the efforts,” he said and urged that the government should rein in trouble makers to save the peace process.

Upper parts of Kurram had remained cut off from the rest of the country since November 6 last when fierce clashes broke out in the region.

The blockade had badly affected socio-economic activities in the region which forced local people to travel to Peshawar via Afghanistan.

The political administration had made an abortive attempt to open the road in June last for transporting food to Parachinar but the convoy was attacked near Sadda in Lower Kurram.

Sajjid Hussain, an MNA from the area, said that around 1,600 people had been killed and more then 3,000 wounded in fighting, causing large scale displacement and destruction. He said that Fata Secretariat in coordination with the Federal Interior Ministry was working out a plan for road safety.

Sources said that one of the reasons for delaying visit of jirga was immediate transfer of political agent Mohammad Azam Khan, who was posted as managing director of Sarhad Tourism Corporation.

Officials said that as the political agent was transferred after he was promoted to grade 20. Only grade 19 officer can be posted as political agent of Kurram.

“Transfer of Azam Khan at this very moment was not a wise decision on the part of the government.

His transfer conveys a clear message that government is not sincere in restoration of peace in Kurram,” said a jirga member from Parachinar. He said that Azam Khan should stay in Parachinar once joint jirga reached by road to start dialogue.

Sources said that normalcy was fast returning to Kurram valley and rival groups had voluntarily vacated trenches in sensitive areas and stopped plundering and destroying each other properties.

In Parachinar town, the administrative headquarters, local elders have voluntarily placed complete ban on display of weapons. Peace committees have been set up to check the movement of miscreants. (Dawn)

By Zulfiqar Ali

http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/2008/10/almost-one-million-people-of-parachinar.html

ANALYSIS: Blind to the threat —Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

ANALYSIS: Blind to the threat —Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

If the Taliban agenda was nothing more than the expulsion of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan their efforts to expand their domain to some of the settled districts of the NWFP makes no sense. And what is the justification of the sectarian violence in Kurram Agency?

The government and major opposition parties are euphoric over the unanimous passage of the resolution on militancy in the tribal areas during the joint session of parliament. They think that they have evolved a credible approach to dealing with the insurgency and its violent fallout in mainland Pakistan.

The government is pleased with the resolution because it can easily project this development as an indication of growing political harmony among Pakistan’s diverse political actors. Opposition parties had initially used the joint session to build pressure on the government. The PMLN leadership, for instance, criticised the government for its refusal to honour the commitment to restore all superior court judges through an executive order. The government also faced criticism for its inability to halt the current economic downslide. The unanimous resolution eases some pressure on the government for the time being.

The PMLN, the Jama’at-e Islami and the JUIF are happy that the resolution neutralises, if not negates, the official argument that the war on terror is Pakistan’s war. The resolution accommodates the major positions of these parties on militancy and the operations in the tribal areas by calling for the withdrawal of regular troops from the region.

The resolution serves the interests of the Pakistani Taliban, who must be pleased that the resolution endorses their major demands without asking for any reciprocal commitment. It suggests the end of the army operation and consequent withdrawal, something the Taliban have been demanding since the beginning of the operation. It also calls for negotiations with the Taliban on the contentious issues.

What does the government get in return? Nothing. The Taliban have not made any commitment so far on suspending their violent activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan in response to the resolution, not to speak of agreeing to function within the framework of the Pakistani constitution.

The optimism surrounding the passage of this resolution is misplaced. It is well known that a parliamentary resolution, even when adopted unanimously, is not binding on the government. It has moral and political implications, but they are usually not acted upon. Even if they are, it is selective. It would be interesting to know how many members were present in the session with the resolution was approved ‘unanimously’.

The resolution is a good declaration of intent, with emphasis on the peaceful and negotiated settlement of differences. However, it does not outline ways and means to operationalised its basic ideas into concrete policy measures. Some suggestions are not likely to be implemented at all, which will start a new polemical debate between the government and the opposition.

Representatives of the military provided detailed briefing to the parliamentarians to underline the major threat to internal security and stability posed by the Taliban, and to highlight that the Taliban were trying to establish an alternate authority by paralysing the Pakistani state. The current political government shares this perspective. The president and the prime minister have issued several statements over the last two months supporting military action. It is clear from their policy statements that they would like these operations to continue till state authority is firmly established.

The army wanted the political parties to support it in its venture in the tribal areas. Such support is needed because the army and paramilitary forces have lost over three thousand personnel in these operations over the last five years.

Yet the resolution does not have a word of sympathy for the armed forces, which is likely to disappoint them. Parliamentarians should have appreciated their efforts and then asked for limited or no use of force in the tribal areas. It seems that the parliamentarians hardly paid any attention to the briefings and drafted the resolution based on their pre-briefing perspectives.

The Islamist perspective, which does not view the Taliban as a threat to Pakistan, seems to dominate the resolution. The Taliban are portrayed as one of the ‘stakeholders’ in the political equation. There is no condemnation of suicide attacks or the blowing up of girls’ schools or public executions.

The PMLN, the PMLQ, the Jama’at-e Islami, the JUIF, the Tehreek-e Insaf and a host of Islamist groups take a naïve view of violence in the tribal areas and beyond. Instead of viewing the Taliban as Pakistan’s adversary, they sympathise with them as they are fighting US and NATO troops in Afghanistan. They hold the view that the Taliban will have no reason to use violence if American troops quit Afghanistan, since Pakistan’s support for the war on terror is the main cause of insurgency east of the Durand Line. In other words, changes have to be made in Pakistan’s policies, not in the Taliban’s.

American presence in Afghanistan can be viewed as one of the factors responsible for the Taliban resurgence. However, by now, the Taliban have expanded their agenda to include the establishment of a political and administrative domain in and around the tribal areas by neutralising the writ of the Pakistani state.

If the Taliban agenda was nothing more than the expulsion of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan their efforts to expand their domain to some of the settled districts of the NWFP makes no sense: no American troops are present in these areas. And what is the justification of the sectarian violence in Kurram Agency?

It is not clear if US troops in Afghanistan can be put under pressure by the Taliban policy of threatening Pakistani businesspeople and warning them against involvement in any ventures that are unacceptable to the Taliban. The main target of the Taliban is the Pakistani state, yet the resolution fails to take this into account.

Given the expanded Taliban agenda, the government of Pakistan will find it difficult to completely withdraw forces from the tribal areas and leave the security of the region to the insufficiently trained and equipped paramilitary forces. The resolution gives some leverage to the government by suggesting that the army be replaced “where possible with civilian law enforcement agencies with enhanced capacity”. However, the opposition expects a total cessation of military operations, which the government cannot initiate in the absence of a commitment by the Taliban to respect Pakistani state authority and end all violence.

If the opposition parties, the JUIF and parliamentarians from the tribal areas are interesting in evolving an amicable settlement of the trouble in the tribal areas, they should set up a committee for initiating non-official dialogue with the Taliban leadership to formulate proposals for a possible solution. Both sides will be expected to interact within the framework of the constitution. If some credible proposals can be evolved, the opposition would have a better case for implementing the parliamentary resolution.

Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi is a political and defence analyst

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\10\26\story_26-10-2008_pg3_2

october, 26, 2008

Lightning kills FC troop, injures three

Lightning kills FC troop, injures three

PARACHINAR (APP): At least one FC man was killed and three others injured due to lightening in Shakardara area in Kurram Agency on Thursday. According to local political administration Naeem Khattak was killed while Naik Qayum Khan, Zabat Khan Mehsud and Gul Zaman sustained critical injuries when lightening hit them at Shakai check post in Lower Kurram Agency. The Frontier Post Friday, October 31, 2008, Dhil-Q'ada 1, 1429 A.H.

Bodies swapped in Kurram Agency

Bodies swapped in Kurram Agency

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Our correspondent PARACHINAR: Taking initiatives for bringing normalcy to the area, the Peace Jirga of the local elders Tuesday exchanged at least 24 bodies and two prisoners between Tori and Bangash tribes at Balishkhel checkpost Tuesday. A meeting was held at the checkpost which was attended by the members of the peace jirga, including Sajid Hussain Tori MNA, Senator Engineer Rasheed Ahmed, Bismillah Jan, former Senator Abdul Aziz, Maulana Khurshid Anwar Jawadi, Malik Abdullah Jan and others. Addressing on the occasion, the speakers said the jirga formed to restore peace in the area would perform its responsibilities efficiently, adding that it is the only opportunity to bury grudges and hatred and try to live brotherly. About 2,000 families had been displaced from the areas, including Gulbazana, Parachinar, Sadda, Arawali, Bagzai, Monda, Jalamay and Chardiwar, would be brought back to their villages, they said. A large number of the local residents arrived at the checkpost to receive the bodies of their relatives, who were killed during the sectarian clashes. About 21 bodies were handed over to Bangash tribe while 3 bodies to Tori tribe besides swapping prisoners. They said the jirga would also resolve other issues like closure of Peshawar-Parachinar Road, taking back the properties occupied by the rival groups, facilitating the hospitals lacking medicines and restoration of power supply to the area that has been suspended for the last three months. So far 1,500 people have been killed and 5,000 injured during the clashes in Kurram Agency. Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Sectarianism in Kurram Agency

KURRAM Tribal Agency is one of the most scenic and picturesque valley of Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of Pakistan, having the geographic distinction of sharing a border with Afghanistan on three sides. The area forming the present day Kurram Agency was a part of Afghanistan before the Second Afghan War of 1878-79. The Kurram Valley got their independence in 1880, however, the administration was undertaken by the British government in 1890 not as a British district, but as a loosely administered area. In Lord Curzon’s reorganization of the frontier in 1900-1901, the British troops were withdrawn from the forts in the Kurram Valley, and were replaced by the Kurram militia, reorganized in two battalions, and chiefly drawn from the Turi tribe. Kurram Agency is the only tribal region in the country’s semi-autonomous seven tribal territories which has a large number of Shiites - the rest of the six tribal agencies are overwhelmingly inhabited by Sunni Muslims. According to official figures, its total population is 500,000, with 58 percent Sunni and 42 percent Shiite. The majority of the Shiites live in the upper part of the Kurram Agency, while Sunnis inhabit lower and central Kurram. The population of Kurram valley consists of a number of tribes, namely Turi, Bangash, Parachamkani, Massozai, Alisherzai, Zaimusht, Mangal, Kharotai, Ghalgi and Hazara. There was also a sizeable sikh population but most of them have left the valley. The multi-ethnic communities share common cultural, linguistic and historical heritage, but due to a history of sectarian violence the cities are bifurcated according to sect, and there are no longer any mixed localities. Sectarian violence is not a new phenomenon in Kurram Agency where well over 4000 people have been killed in clashes between the Sunni and Shia tribes since the decade of 1980s. However, the clashes going on for nearly two years have become more alarming because of the reported involvement of Taliban in the ongoing violence. Parachinar and the agency were predominantly Shia until a large influx of Sunnis started with the US-Russia war in Afghanistan, when the Mujahideen used it to raid Afghanistan. With the rise in Sunni numbers, there was also a rise in sectarian violence. When the US pressurized the Taliban in Afghanistan, they moved to the adjoining Tribal Areas of Pakistan and re-grouped and re-organized there. Now, resurgent for the eighteen months or so, they have been building up their presence in Swat, Bajaur, Khyber, Dara Adam Khel and the suburbs of Peshawar. It was this resurgence coupled with their desire for an alternate route into Afghanistan that has made the Taliban interested in Parachinar. In recent years the Kurram Valley has once again assumed a very strategic position and has been an area of intense military activity between the Taliban and American and allied forces. The fresh violence had been engineered by Al Qaeda in order to divert the attention of the Pakistan army from its on-going operations against the jihadis in the Swat Valley. The violence between Sunni Bangash and Shia Turi tribesmen has plagued the agency bordering Afghanistan for one and a half years. As many as 900 people have been killed in the sectarian violence in Kurram Agency since April last year. Land routes to most parts of the Kurram valley have been cut off from the rest of the country, triggering a severe shortage of food and medical supplies. People coming to Peshawar have been forced to travel via the Paktia province of Afghanistan. In December, 2007, there was a fresh flare-up of clashes between the Shia Turi tribals and Sunni tribals belonging to al Qaeda and the newly-formed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Some leaders of the Shiite community have blamed the Sunni Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked foreign militants in the tribal region for the latest wave of violence in Kurram.While condemning violence in Khurram Agency, Pakistan religious leaders foresee a conspiracy to ignite the fire of sectarianism meant to destabilize Pakistan. The people of the area urged to foil the designs of those elements who are trying to divide Muslims of Kurram Agency. Islam is a religion of peace and there is no room in it for anyone to impose his “brand of religion” on others. The only way forward is to promote the true Islamic values of accommodation, tolerance and peace and ignore those out to spread darkness, narrow mindedness, extremism and intolerance. These forces are presenting a warped image of Islam and are thereby damaging it enormously. It is matter of immense concern that why these values of forgiveness, patience and tolerance have vanished from the society. The pathway out of the current predicament is to open the issue for stakeholders’ debate and let the political leaders to address the real issues facing the people through constructive dialogue. In this connection, a 100 member grand jirga of Kurram Agency has brokered a peace deal between warring sectarian groups in the region. Under the agreement, the two sides agreed to: (1) Exchange kidnapped people (2) Reopen all roads to ensure supply of foodstuff, medicines and other essential items. (3) Allow the displaced people to return to their villages. (4) Bunkers would be vacated and handed over to the Frontier Corps. (5) A fine of Rs 60 million will be imposed for any violation of the agreement. The tribal elders promised to cooperate with the government in maintaining peace.The Government is earnestly endeavouring to resolve the sectarian issue and bring the Tribal Areas at par with other four provinces of the country with special focus on education, developmental work, political stability, and pro-poor policies. The armed clashes in Kurram Agency are not sectarian but some hidden external hands are involved in the conflict. Miscreants and militants are the main factors for resurgence of violence in Kurram agency. The people of Kurram agency are fully aware of the fact that the war in the area is not in their interest. The Government should curb the activities of conspirators and save Parachinar from becoming an incubator and a launching pad for sectarian violence all over Pakistan.

by Ibn ul Hasan Shah

Daily Mail NEWS
http://dailymailnews.com/200810/25/dmcolumnpage.html

Motorcyclist died in accident

PARACHINAR: A motorcyclist died while another injured when a speedy motorbike plunged into deep ravine at Luqmankhel here Thursday.

According to political authorities here, Hasmat Ali was on the way home when he lost control over vehicle and was plunged into deep ditch. Resultantly, Hasmat Ali succumbed to his wounds while his friend Ishaq Hussain sustained critical injuries and was hospitalized in the Agency Headquarters Hospital Parachinar.

Associated Press of Pakistan

Friday, October 24, 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurram_Agency

u can edit this article....

please share your information about our history so that we can edit this article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurram_Agency

Kurram Valley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Kurram Agency)

Kurram Agency
District map of FATA and NWFP - Districts of FATA are shown shown in blue.
Area	3,310 km²
Population (1998)  • Density	448,310  • /km²
Time zone	PST (UTC+5)
Established  • Political Agent  • Number of Tehsils	•   •
Main language(s)	Pashto, Urdu, English
Website	[1]

Kurram or Karam (Urdu: کرم ) tribal agency is located in the FATA area of Pakistan.Geogrpahically it covers Kurram Valley (Urdu: وادی کُرم) which is a beautiful valley in the northwestern part of Pakistan neighboring Afghanistan.

Until the year 2000, when divisions were abolished, Kurram District used to be part of the Peshawar Division of the North-West Frontier Provinceof Pakistan.The name Kurram comes from the river Kurram which flows along the valley. The valley in the north is surrounded by white mountains (the safed Koh) which also forms the natural border with Afghanistan.

The Kurram River drains the southern flanks of the Safed Koh mountain range, and enters the Indus plains north of Bannu. It flows west to east and crosses the Paktia Province Afghan-Pakistan border at 33°49′N 69°58′E about 80 km southwest of Jalalabad, and joins the Indus nearIsa Khel after a course of more than 320 km (200 miles). The district has an area of 3,310 km² (1,278 sq. miles); the population according to the 1998 census was 448,310^[1]. It lies between the Miranzai Valley and the Afghan border, and is inhabited by the Pashtun Turis, a tribe of Turkiand Pathan origin on the western and central side who are supposed to have subjugated the Bangash Pashtun about six hundred years ago. The language of the tribe is Pashto, but unlike majority of the Pashtuns they are Shias. Eastern portion of the valley is now inhabited mostly by Sunni Pukhtoons mostly Mangals and Paras and Sunni Bangash.

Contents  [hide] 1 History 2 Major locations 2.1 Parachinar Cantonment 3 Major Towns 3.1 Sadda 3.2 Peiwar 4 Major Dams 4.1 Maulana dam 4.2 Zeran dam 5 Climate 6 Flaura and Fauna 7 Mentioned in Rigveda 8 Taliban Activity 9 Pictures 10 References 11 See also 12 External links

[edit]History

The Kurram Valley in ancient times offered the most direct route to Kabul and Gardez. The route crossed the Peiwar Kotal Pass 3,439 m (11,283 ft) high, just over 20 km west of modernParachinar, but was blocked by snow for several months of the year.

The valley is highly irrigated, well peopled, and crowded with small fortified villages, orchards and groves, to which a fine background is afforded by the dark pine forests and alpine snows of the Safed Koh. The beauty and climate of the valley attracted some of the Mughal emperors of Delhi, and the remains exist of a garden planted by Shah Jahan. According to the Gazetteer of Kurram, the richness of the land gradually weaned the Turks from their nomadic life. Sections built villages and settled permanently; they ceased to be Kuchi and became Kothi this abandonment of their nomadic habits by the majority of the resulted, as it was bound to do, in a contraction of the area in effective possession. The upper Kurram plain was safe as their head-quarters, but hills and slopes below the Safed Koh and Mandher over which their graziers had kept an efficient watch, now afforded a menace as a place in which an encroaching tribe could established itself. To guard against this settlements of Mangales and Muqbols were half invited half allowed to push themselves in conditions of vassalage, and on promise to afford a buttress against any enemy aggression. In the lower Kurram, where for climatic reasons candidates for settlements were fewer, the problem was not easily solved. The Chardi Turis seem to have been the first to abandon their nomadic life.As the numbers who went down to graze every year became less,the area under control contracted. Sangroba and Hadmela were left far behind and as the Turis receded the Watizai Zaimushts gradually pushed in, until all that was left was a settlement at and about Alizai. On the western side the Saragallas retained, and still largely retain their habits. They too put in settlements around Biliamin and after much intervening warfare had finally to admit Bangashes brother not as vassals, but for the rest they retain unimpaired the rights on the western bank which they acquirerd at the time the conquest.

With Chardis this was for from being the course left unsupported by their Kuchis they maintained a precarious existence at Alizai until even then they had to give three-fifths of their land to the Watizai Zaimushts in return for their assistance in a feud they had entered upon with Bilyamin. Consequently the hills and the grazing grounds passed from the Turizun to the Zaimushtzun and as the other Zaimushts section being unopposed had settled themselves on the left bank below Sadda.

In the early 19th century the Kurram Valley was under the government of Kabul, and every five or six years a military expedition was sent to collect the revenue, the soldiers living meanwhile at free quarters on the people. It was not until about 1848 that the Turis were brought directly under the control of Kabul, when a governor was appointed, who established himself in Kurram. The Turis, being Shiah Muslims, never liked the Afghan rule.

During the second Afghan War, when Sir Frederick Roberts advanced by way of the Kurram Valley and the Peiwar Kotal to Kabul, the Turis lent him every assistance in their power, and in consequence their independence was granted them in 1880.

The administration of the Kurram Valley was finally undertaken by the British government, at the request of the Turis themselves, in 1890. Technically it ranked, not as a British district, but as an agency or administered area.

Two expeditions in the Kurram Valley also require mention: (1) The Kurram expedition of 1856 under Brigadier-General Sir Neville Chamberlain. The Turis on the first annexation of the Kohat district by the British had given much trouble. They had repeatedly leagued with other tribes to harry the Miranzai valley, harbouring fugitives, encouraging resistance, and frequently attacking Bangash and Khattak villages in the Kohat district. Accordingly, in 1856 a British force of 4,896 troops traversed their country, and the tribe entered into engagements for future good conduct. (2) The Kohat-Kurram expedition of 5,897 under Colonel W. Hill. During the frontier risings of 1897 the inhabitants of the Kurram valley, chiefly the Massozai section of theOrakzais, were infected by the general excitement, and attacked the British camp at Sadda and other posts. A force of 14,230 British troops traversed the country, and the tribesmen were severely punished. In Lord Curzon's reorganization of the frontier in 1900-1901, the British troops were withdrawn from the forts in the Kurram Valley, and were replaced by the Kurram militia, reorganized in two battalions, and chiefly drawn from the Turi tribe.

In recent years the Kurram Valley has once again assumed a very strategic position and has been an area of intense military activity between the Taliban and American and allied forces.

[edit]Major locations

[edit]Parachinar Cantonment

Parachinar is the political head quarter of Kurram valley. It has offices of political agent, levy, and Kurram Militia, part of Frontier core (FC). It is located on the western and northern side of the valley. This makes it a part of Upper Kurram. The name of Parachinar comes from 'Para', one of the tribes of the valley and 'Chinar', the maple trees which are found in abundance in Kurram value in general and Parachinar in particular. The town of Parachinar has population around thirty thousand with Turi majority. The town has government hospital and many government schools.

[edit]Major Towns

[edit]Sadda

Sadda is capital of Lower Kurram. FC maintains there posts here. It is mostly inhabited by Sunni tribes now and most of the Turis have left. There was also a sizeable sikh population but most of them have left the valley.

[edit]Peiwar

Peiwar is located on the north west corner of the valley. It is raised plateau and has many small villages. Most of the area is inhabited by Turis. Peiwar is important for political and geographical reasons.

[edit]Major Dams

[edit]Maulana dam

Maulana dam is a small dam in Safed Koh north of Parachinar city. It is close to Maulana village and is famous for its scenic beauty.

[edit]Zeran dam

Zeran dam is located on north east of Prachinar. It is also famous for its scenic beauty.

[edit]Climate

Climate of the valley is very pleasant all year around. In winters it can become slightly cold with temperature reaching -20 degree Celsius. It also snows in northern and western parts of the valley. Apart from that weather is pleasant all year around with much precipitation during spring and summer season. Autumn and winter are usually dry.

[edit]Flaura and Fauna

The valley has wide variety of plant and animal species.

[edit]Mentioned in Rigveda

In the Rigveda, the Kurrum is mentioned as Krumu.[2]

[edit]Taliban Activity

In recent years the Kurram Valley has once again assumed a very strategic position and has been an area of intense military activity between the Taliban and American and allied forces.

Local people of Kurram agency have realized that long lasting peace can only be achieved by abandoning the Taliban activities in the region and controlling their influx into the agency as well. The people of different communities have assured their support in this regard and realized the need for practical steps in this regard.

[edit]Pictures

Parachinar Kurram.

Dandar Road Parachinar.

Malikhel Parachinar.

Mazri Forest Baggan.