By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said Monday that Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur is in direct communication with local authorities following the fatal shooting of seven protesters in Tirah Valley, a restive region in the province’s Khyber district.
The incident, which also left at least 16 others wounded, erupted Sunday during a demonstration outside the Brigade Headquarters in Bagh-Maidan Markaz, sparked by the death of a minor girl in a mortar strike a day earlier. The government’s response marks the latest development in a volatile situation that has drawn condemnation and conflicting narratives from provincial and federal leaders.
“The chief minister is in constant contact with the relevant administration,” Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif, Gandapur’s public relations adviser, said in a statement. “The KP government is extremely saddened over the incident,” he added, emphasising that the chief minister is personally monitoring the situation. “The provincial government is standing side by side with the affected families in this moment of sorrow and grief.”
The violence unfolded when hundreds of tribesmen, enraged over the girl’s death in the Zakhakhel area, brought her body to the military installation to protest. According media reports, the demonstration turned chaotic as a mob, mostly young men, ignored pleas from local elders to remain peaceful. The crowd torched an excavator parked outside the headquarters and attempted to force open the main gate. Security personnel guarding the facility reportedly opened fire to disperse the protesters, resulting in the casualties, media reported.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, however, offered a sharply different account. In a statement carried by state-run Radio Pakistan and the Associated Press of Pakistan, he condemned the “firing on peaceful citizens by khawarij”, a term the government uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and expressed grief over the “martyrdom of innocent and peaceful civilians.”
The statement made no mention of the protest, instead directing authorities to provide immediate medical assistance to the injured. “The nefarious designs of terrorists cannot shake our resolve,” Sharif said, reaffirming the government’s commitment to rooting out terrorism.
Videos circulating on social media captured the unrest: flames engulfed the excavator as protesters pelted stones at the headquarters, with gunshots ringing out as the crowd scattered. The injured were rushed to the Frontier Corps Hospital in Shah Kas Jamrud, Dogra Hospital in Bara, and Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar. One remains in critical condition, according to hospital sources.
Following the shootings, security officials, including the local sector commander, met with a delegation of Tirah elders at the Brigade Headquarters, promising support for their demands, including compensation for the victims. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government separately announced Rs10 million for each deceased individual and Rs2.5 million for the injured, signaling an effort to address the community’s grievances.
Saif, the chief minister’s adviser, also took aim at opposition parties for skipping a multi-party conference (MPC) held last week to tackle the province’s worsening security situation. “The moot had been organized to prevent such incidents,” he said. The administration plans to hold a series of jirgas with tribal elders starting next week, including one in Peshawar, as part of the MPC’s roadmap.
The incident has intensified anger in a region long scarred by conflict. PTI lawmakers Iqbal Afridi, a member of the National Assembly from Khyber, and Abdul Ghani, a provincial assembly member, have demanded a transparent judicial inquiry into the shootings. Both joined supporters in a separate protest on Monday at Bab-i-Khyber in Jamrud.
Residents of Peer Mela in Zakhakhel say mortar shelling has killed at least three people in the past 10 days, part of operations targeting armed militant groups in areas like Shalobar, Adakhel, and Malakdin Khel. The girl’s death on Saturday in the Darbar locality was the immediate trigger for Sunday’s unrest, though no official report on that mortar strike has surfaced. Similar incidents have plagued the region: mortar blasts killed children in Zakhakhel in April and December this year, and two more died in a July 22 explosion in Tank district, according to Rescue 1122.
Tirah Valley’s tribal elders have for years opposed military operations, warning of displacement and civilian tolls. Earlier this month, a massive rally of peace campaigners from Tirah and Bara tehsil rejected any new offensive, while local leaders recently vowed not to pay ushr, a tax, to terrorist groups. The shootings come amid heightened tensions over security in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province bordering Afghanistan where the TTP and other groups have regained footholds.
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