Hamidullah Wazir
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker from South Waziristan Agency (SWA) NA-41 Ghalib Khan Wazir urged that governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Iqbal Zafar Jhagra to order a thorough probe into the matter involving unknown persons who torched four fruit loaded trucks in broad-day light in the region.
In his exclusive chat with Pakistan Today, Ghalib Khan Wazir recalled that setting on fire four trucks and taking away some pickups and men by unidentified persons raised serious question about the government’s claims of establishing writ in the area once regarded as a strong hold of militants.
Some days back unknown persons set on fire four trucks loaded with fruit and kidnapped two tribesmen. The unidentified armed men stopped a convoy of trucks transporting apples to Punjab from Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan, on the nearby Gomal Zam Road in Karknra area.
“The gunmen stopped the trucks on the main road and set ablaze four of the vehicles, destroying the fruit and trucks,” media quoted a senior official of the local administration as saying.
Ghalib Khan expressed serious reservation by saying that the military has purged almost all of the troubled agency of anti-state elements.
“I will meet governor KPK to probe the issue and bring the responsible to justice otherwise, I will myself lead a protest demonstration against the incident,” he warned.
He said that the government has first step to ensure law and order should remove the Political Agent of South Waziristan Zafarul Islam, who he said is an incompetent and inexperience administrator.
He said that 400 to 500 fruits and vegetable trucks are being transported daily during the month of June, July, August, September and October to rest of the country.
However, he said that such kinds of incidents would leave far reaching negative impacts on local business.
He said that it was second incident of its kind in the same area, where a number of check posts established for maintaining law and order.
The PML-N MNA asked the governor to take note of the recent surge in terrorist incidents in South Waziristan, as the people of the area had already paid heavy human and financial losses due to on-going war against terrorism.
The security forces had carried out a military operation “Rah-e-Nijat” in 2009 in South Waziristan and declared most parts of the tribal region cleared of the militants. The return of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to the cleared areas started a few months ago.
The MNA, however, has expressed serious concern over the precarious security situation as the militants had kidnapped engineers and other employees of Gomal Zam Dam project in 2012. One of those kidnapped was killed and others were released later. Also, the militants kidnapped employees of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Development Authority (FDA) in March this year, who were released after two months.
