Roads reopening provide succour to tribesmen

PESHAWAR: The residents of Khyber Agency took a sigh of relief when the authorities on Friday reopened the main roads linking agency with Peshawar and other settled areas for few hours. The roads were closed for the last three days owing to the operation launched by the security forces in tehsil Jamrud of the Agency to wipe out the militants from the area. Curfew was also been clamped on Jamrud and surrounding areas and the shopkeepers were ordered not to open the markets. The measures, according to concerned Political Authorities, were taken to counter the possibility of the escape attempts by the miscreants against whom the operation was initiated which was supported by the local population. The situation however affected the local residents as well as the people, who use to travel in and out side the area for various reasons, like traders employees of the public and private sector organizations etc. Because of the closure of Jamrud and Bara roads, the two main rods leading to Khyber Agency from Peshawar, life was almost at a stand still in the Agency. Long rows of the vehicles carrying goods and essential commodities to the tribal area and onward to Afghanistan were visible along the sides of the two roads near the entry points. Same was the situation with the passenger vehicles, while the commuters had to travel for miles by foot to reach their destinations. The patients, under these circumstances suffered a lot, as it was very difficult to bring them to the hospitals located in Peshawar. The state of affairs also created shortage of food items and the medicines inside the cordoned-off tribal area. As the roads opened on Friday morning after the announcement of a pause in the curfew, the containers, trucks, busses and cars rushed to the Agency. The people travelling in and out side the area were happy to see the roads open. Some of them while talking to the Frontier Post expressed satisfaction over the development. They supported the operation clean up against the miscreants but at the same time they showed resentment over the sufferings of the residents of the Agency. "The main objective of the operation was to clear the area of the militants for giving safe passage to the NATO supplies and it was not aimed at providing relief to the local population however the residents of the area too want an end to militancy", they said. They condemned the losses occurred to the innocent people of the tribal areas during the action taken by the authorities and demanded that curfew should be withdrawn from the cordoned-off area and the authorities should not compel the local population to face difficulties by closing the roads and other actions like these.