Residents demand lifting of curfew from Bara

BARA: The residents and elders here on Tuesday asked the authorities to lift the curfew in Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency. They said that the people of Bara have been facing problems due to the imposition of the curfew for the last three days.

The local people said that the security forces were attacked in Jamrud, but curfew was clamped in Bara, which was an injustice. The residents said the Frontier Road in Akakhel, Alamgudar, Samghahai, Shahkas, Nala Malikdinkhel and Bar Qambarkhel roads had been closed for traffic.

“We were badly affected by the curfew in the past as the Bara bazaar had remained closed for six years,” said a local tribal elder wishing not to be named. He said that children, women and patients suffered the most due to the clampdown.  Other tribal elders said that the prolonged period of curfew imposed during the military operations against the militants in Bara led to the destruction of educational institutes, medical centres and businesses. “The local people are facing shortage of food, vegetables and other necessary items owing to the imposition of the curfew in Bara,” said another elder.

Earlier, a local political organisation Khyber Union and members of the civil society organisations asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor and inspector general of Frontier Corps to relax curfew in Bara to facilitate residents as they were faced with a host of problems.