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| Inclusion of 25 Mohmand Agency villages in Charsadda |
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Thursday, October 19, 2006
Jirga decides to cultivate poppy in protest
Syed Bukhar Shah
PESHAWAR: To protest against the inclusion of 25 Mohmand Agency villages into District Charsadda, a tribal Jirga unanimously decided to cultivate poppy on 5,000-Jirab land between Michni and Parang Ghar.
More than 300 elders from Tarakzai, Halimzai, Baran Khel, Essa Khel and Utmankhel tribes in Mohmand Agency gathered at the Hujra of a local leader Professor Ayaz and announced to block Peshawar-Bajaur Road on November 5 for acceptance of their demands.
The tribal Jirga reiterated to continue movement till the acceptance of their demands. It was also decided to destroy all the standing poppy crops under the command of the political agent if the government re-includes their 25 villages in Mohmand Agency.
The Jirga appealed to the government to treat the tribesmen as equal citizens of Pakistan instead of considering them as 'slaves'. "We and our forefathers had been rendering great sacrifices for Pakistan and will do so in future," said Professor Ayaz.
Giving details of the Jirga, the aging professor observed that the 400,000 tribesmen had been pushed to the wall. "Our fundamental human rights are being trampled. We are being treated like slaves. We are not slaves, nor we want to live like slaves. We have been protesting since long but nothing practical was done for the solution of our problems and that was why we have decided to cultivate poppy and block the road for acceptance of our demands. We have taken this decision under compulsion to protest against the injustices of the government," he said.
The residents of 25 villages including Tarakzai, Halimzai, Baran Khel, Essa Khel, Utman Khel tribes are living here for the last more than 800 years. The entire population was living a peaceful life under their own customs and traditions but the former NWFP chief minister Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan included their 25 villages in district Charsadda on 2.4.1999. Since then, the residents of these villages have been protesting against the government's decision.
Prof Ayaz said during the last eight years of resistance movement, our people had been cooperating with the political authorities and did not cooperate with the district government Charsadda. According to him, the law and order situation bad become worse with the deployment of police. Murder, kidnapping for ransom, robberies, he said, were order of the day.
The lives and properties of citizens are not secure. Police and FC have confined their duties only to their routine check-up. Before this, only two Khassadars and one tehsildar were maintaining the law and order situation but now 6,000 police constables and FC could not control the situation, Ayaz remarked.
"We have decided to welcome Political Agent and destroy all the poppy crop if the government accept our demand and include our 25 villages in Mohmand Agency," said Professor Ayaz, but, he added, we will resist the government if it tried to use force against us.
Severely criticising the DCO Charsadda for holding a meeting with some people from Mohmand Agency, professor termed such people as agents of "British Khans". He asked the district administration to stop interference in their tribal areas reminding them that the district administrator could not run the affairs of their area even for one day without the political authorities.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
