When the provincial information minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, was informed by the local mediapersons that foreigners in Peshawar are hurrying back home in panic, he said: “The provincial government is looking into the matter and things will be improved soon.”
He realised that the wave of kidnapping and lawlessness was earning a bad name for the government, which would be dealt with iron hand.
For the last over a month, the law enforcement agencies in Peshawar and the adjacent tribal areas are busy searching Afghanistan’s ambassador Abdul Khaliq Farahi, who was kidnapped by unknown outlaws from Hayatabad area after killing his bodyguard. Later Hashmat Atharzad, commercial attache at the Iranian Consulate in Peshawar, was also kidnapped from the posh area of Hayatabad.
The two high profile kidnappings coupled with the brutal murder of an American national Stephen Devancy, who was heading a developmental project in Fata, has literally perturbed the law enforcement agencies and the provincial government.
Meanwhile, the government has for the first time decided to launch an operation in Khyber Agency to overcome the present situation, which has brought a bad name to the provincial as well as the federal government.
It has been decided to first hit the miscreants and militants and then flush out the kidnappers and criminals from the area.
As soon as the reports of the expected operation in Khyber Agency were published in the local press, the head of Lashkar-i-Islam, Mangal Bagh, warned the government to refrain from launching the operation in Khyber Agency, as it would have dire consequences for Peshawar.
He told a news agency that secret agencies were trying to upset the peaceful environment in Khyber Agency and any military operation there would endanger the security of Peshawar and important government installations in the city.
He said Khyber Agency was not like Swat, Bajaur or Waziristan where the government had started operations, therefore any misadventure from the government’s side would completely destroy peace of Peshawar which the whole of Pakistan Army would not be able to control.
He said Peshawar was hardly a kilometre away from Khyber Agency and the boundary wall of the posh Hayatabad locality touched the agency while Warsak Dam, Peshawar Airport and cantonment are also in the vicinity, therefore operation in the agency would pave the way for ultimate destruction of the city.
He said there is no militant in his force and they were working only against anti-social elements in the agency area so that social crime could be wiped out from the society.
On the second day of this statement, a spokesman for the defunct outfit Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has threatened to carry out suicide attacks in Islamabad, Peshawar, Shabqadar tehsil (adjacent to Mohmand Tribal Agency) and Charsadda, if the authorities did not suspend the ongoing military operation in Michni Town in Mohmand Agency.
Abu Hanifa, the spokesman for TTP Michni chapter, told mediapersons from an undisclosed location that there was no justification for a military operation against the local Taliban in Michni Town.
“Our Fidayeen have reached Islamabad and if the government did not stop operation, they will turn the capital into a fireball,” he said, adding that, “Our Fidayeen will also hit targets in Peshawar, Charsadda and Peshawar.
A senior government official told Weekly Pulse on condition of anonymity that the government was literally fed-up with the present lawlessness, kidnapping for ransom and broad daylight robberies and dacoities.
“The sole aim of launching an operation in Khyber Agency was to at least control the law and order situation. We knew there are very less number of militants in the area as compared to Waziristan and Bajaur, but the lawlessness in Peshawar is bringing a bad name to the government for which we have decided to launch an operation,” the official added.
He went on to say that another reason of launching a major operation in Khyber Agency was the day-to-day incidents of looting and kidnapping in Peshawar and its adjacent villages. Meanwhile, the police have beefed up security for foreign diplomats in the city and will maintain strict surveillance when the diplomats travel to office and back.
SSP Operation Kashif Alam told mediapersons that kidnappings of foreign diplomats were carried out to malign and pressurise the government. Keeping this in view, security of foreigners has been stepped up, he added. Besides, the residential areas of foreign diplomats have been divided into different zones. Alam said a reduction had been witnessed in kidnapping incidents this week. He said the diplomats had been advised to minimise their engagements.
Under the developmental programme for Khyber Tribal Agency, the federal government has decided an olive plantation project costing Rs14.585 million in Akakhel Maira of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency.
The project envisages establishment of community farms on 2,000 acres under an agreement with the local tribesmen. The project, when completed, will be handed over to the owners of the land.
The project director, Rehmat Jan, said the olive gardens project was likely to be completed within three years in close collaboration with the tribal elders of the area.
Observers believed that if such developmental projects would be launched in the tribal belt of Pakistan, militancy would automatically be curtailed.
“People would get jobs and obviously prosperity would come,” they added.