Be it natural disasters, political conflicts with opposition parties and the federal government or terrorism and law and order, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seems to be stumbling from crisis to crisis. The latest came on Sunday and belongs in the latter category, with protests outside a military installation in Khyber District’s Tirah Valley turning deadly and leading to at least seven protesters being shot dead. While the prime minister appears to have blamed terrorists for the deaths, others say that it was the security forces who opened fire to control the crowd. This confusion itself only seems to highlight the chaos engulfing KP. The cause of the protests was reportedly the death of a minor girl in a mortar strike in the valley’s Zakhakhel area and hundreds of tribespeople brought the body of the girl to the installation. Eyewitnesses and other sources claim that the protests turned violent when an angry mob, mainly comprising young men, ignored calls from local elders to remain calm. While the prime minister and chief minister have rightly condemned the killing of the protesters, it is important to remember that any protests must remain peaceful. Violence on the part of protesters only begets further violence from the state.
That being said, the state cannot brush aside the growing frustration in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the terror and security situation. It seems that those in charge are somehow unable to both stem the ever-increasing militant activity in the province and craft a security response that takes into account the concerns and emotions of the local population, who have long borne the brunt of both the terrorists’ war on Pakistan and Pakistan’s war on terror. Regardless of the exact circumstances of the death that sparked the Tirah Valley protests, the people of KP have been burying their children for decades now – and the state is not showing them any end in sight. The problems with security policy are only compounded by what seems like an increasingly isolated and out-of-sorts provincial government. The tragedy in Tirah comes just a few days after the KP government held an all-parties conference that most major opposition parties boycotted. While this was not a wise move by the KP opposition, it does show how badly fragmented the country is due to the near-constant fights within the federation. How can one be so invested in who is in charge in Islamabad when they are barely holding it together in their own backyard?
Those running KP must realise that a stable province requires a stable centre and adjust accordingly. Similarly, regardless of what missteps the KP government has made, the centre must ensure that it does not become a stone wall deaf to the concerns of the province’s people, and these concerns ought to be reflected in security policy. These changes need to be implemented as quickly as possible. Only a united front can break us out of this situation.