After retreat from Darra Adam Khel, the local Taliban, who emerged as an organized force during the last couple of years, have contacted local gangs of criminals in Peshawar and its suburbs with an offer to them against the government and security forces which were engaged in un-Islamic activities and protecting the evil.
Some notorious criminal groups in Peshawar and its adjoining villages have been offered by heads of certain pro-Taliban organizations from neighbouring tribal areas to join them in the fight against evil and for the cause of Islam.
According to a report presented to the federal government by a secret agency, groups of some hardened criminals, who had made lives of the people of Peshawar and parts of the Punjab and federal capital miserable for the last many years, have been contacted by heads of certain religious organizations from the adjacent tribal areas, offering them to join their ranks against the government. These groups include those who were active against the government, which then launched a massive operation against the kidnappers, car lifters and drug pushers in adjacent villages last year. They also include those 700 volunteers from an adjacent village, who were raised in late 90s to fight hundreds of armed peasants supported by Orakzai Khans of Nasir Bagh area at Jamrud road in their struggle for the control of the Orakzai estate in the area.
According to report, the heads of both the criminal groups and the religious organizations from the tribal belt were in close contact for the last over a year, but soon after the retreat from Darra Adam Khel by the local Taliban, where they had challenged the writ of the government, kidnapped many security personnel and compelled locals to leave the area, a delegation from the adjacent tribal area, Khyber Agency, headed by Haji Namdar Khan, was sent to Peshawar with the task to convince them to join their ranks.
Reports said after meeting the heads in Peshawar, the tribal delegation went back with a report that all such criminal groups had shown their willingness to help the Taliban and other religious organizations.
After going through the contents of the report, the local security agencies have been asked to contact elders of such areas and try to prevent the criminal groups from joining hands with religious organizations and local Taliban. Also, the local police have been asked to launch operations against such groups to root them out from their holds well before they start any activity along with the Taliban against the government.
At the same time, the tribal elders belonging to Darra Adam Khel have announced to boycott the upcoming general elections in protest against the indifferent attitude of the candidates during the military operation in the area.
In a press release, the tribal elders said despite their appeals the former parliamentarians and candidates contesting the 2008 elections did not play any role to stop the killing of civilians and destruction of their homes during and before the operation.
Tribal Maliks, Saadullah Khan, Waris Khan, Abdul Wadood, Shaer Khan and Gul Ghani have warned against any government decision of merger of frontier region of Kohat into the district. They said they would adopt all legal means to stop what they called the unconstitutional move.
They said keeping closed educational institutions and other government departments was another injustice being meted out to the tribesmen.
They asked the education department to immediately open all schools and colleges and also make arrangements for holding separate examinations for the students who could not appear in the supplementary examination of matric class due to the operation.
The elders demanded immediate compensation to the families of 13 civilians who were killed and six others injured during the operation. They said the Kohat tunnel should be immediately opened to the tribesmen who were using the dangerous hilly track.
Meanwhile, when Darra episode was over in the suburbs of Peshawar, the residents of Hayatabad area have witnessed a latest threat when rockets were fired from the adjacent Khyber Agency, which luckily hit the barren land in the colony. Reportedly, rockets were fired from the Wali Baba hills behind Hayatabad Township. No individual or group has claimed responsibility; however, it caused panic among the residents most of whom are influential business class or government servants.
Some of the government officials said firing of such sophisticated weapons to a residential society shows the desperation of the militants, who now face defeats from every end. The firing of the rockets has created a sense of panic and insecurity among the residents as most of them were found telling their near and dear ones that they would pack-up and leave the area if such things happen again in the future.
Observers believed that it is an open signal to the government that if it fails to control such events in time, the residents would wind up their business and other activities in the Peshawar metropolis, instead of staying there and continue facing such incidents.