JNN 22 April 2011 Parachinar : The bodies of eight kidnapped passengers, found in Shahidano Dhand area of lower Kurram, were handed over by the political authorities to elders of Turi tribe on Thursday.

Taliban Terrorist  had attacked a convoy in Beggan area of Kurram Agency on March 25. Three people were Martyred and two other injured in the attack. The attackers also kidnapped 35 passengers.

A tribal jirga that met in Islamabad on Tuesday were told about the killing of some of the captives. The jirga was convened to discuss ways and means for the release of kidnapped persons and salvage peace agreement in the restive area.

MNA Sajid Turi said that political administration handed over bodies of eight kidnapped passengers to them. They were identified as Irfan Hussain, Ghulam Ali, Laiq Hussain, Irshad Hussain, Nasir Hussain, Khalid Anwar, Nowroz Hussain while name of the eighth passenger could not be ascertained, he said.

Mr Turi said that all the bodies were headless and identified by the documents with them. He said that Terrorists and their local supporters in Beggan were responsible for the incident. He demanded of the government to start action against them.

Meanwhile, military helicopters bombed Lashkar-i-Islam hideouts in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Thursday, official sources said.

They said that the action was necessitated after intelligence information about the presence of large number of LI activists in Khar Ghat and surrounding areas of Bazaar-Zakhakhel. Number of casualties could not be immediately known.

Following the attack, the strategic Tall-Parachinar road, which connects Kurram Agency to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital Peshawar, was closed.

The local political administration, security forces and a grand tribal jirga could not succeed in recovering the kidnapped Shias despite several attempts to negotiate with the abductors. The militants freed five women and seven children.

Tension has gripped the region after the attack. Local residents have expressed their disappointment and criticised the political administration and law enforcement agencies for their failure to rescue the kidnapped people even after a lapse of nearly a month.

Dera Ismail Khan

In Dera Ismail Khan, two Shia policemen were killed when armed motorcyclists opened firing on them on Multan Road in the limits of Cantt police station on Thursday.

Sources said that two personnel of police Eagle Squad signalled two suspected motorcyclists in Zamirabad locality to stop. The bikers opened indiscriminate firing on them, killing both policemen identified as Syed Asif.Shah and Naimat on the spot.

The assailants managed to escape after the incident. They also took the guns of the policemen. The bodies of the killed policemen were taken to district headquarters hospital for postmortem and later handed over to their relatives.

Islamabad

Scores of students hailing from Parachinar on Thursday protested in front of the Parliament to  appeal  President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to intervene into the militancy-triggered humanitarian crisis in Kurram Agency.

These youths, studying in academic institutions of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Peshawar, are desperate to reunite with their family members in Parachinar and elsewhere in Kurram Agency. Well over 0.5 million people in the agency face day-to-day problems, from a free movement to provision of medicines, vegetables and edibles. “We have gathered here to make our leaders sitting in the Presidency, Prime Minister House and the GHQ to realise the gravity of the situation we have been in since long,” they contended.

Hasan Fakhri (doing BSc honours from Peshawar Agriculture University), who is the convenor of the Youth of Parachinar, under which these students gathered in the federal capital, said they had no doubt in their mind that if the government had the will, it could restore peace in the agency within days. He said they were not asking for the moon: they were raising their voice for a decisive action against the enemies of humanity. “It is the state’s fundamental responsibility to protect life and property of its citizens and the same we are pleading for here,” he argued.

Zulqarnain, Muhammad Adil, Noor Nabi and Kamran Bangash and a few others, who spoke to this correspondent, brushed aside the impression that what was happening in the agency was partly the result of any Sunni-Shia rift there.

They pointed out the Youth of Parachinar consisted of both Sunni and Shia students and they had one common wish to see restoration of peace in Kurram Agency. Asked why in their opinion, the government had failed so far to drive out the militants and restore pace or at least make it the vital road link between the agency and the rest of Pakistan i.e. the Parachinar-Tall Road safe for movement, they apprehended, this could be against their interests to do so. It was learnt the only possibility now to reach the agency was by air but the one-side fare was Rs8,000-22,000, which the rich could afford and not the common residents of Kurram Agency.

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