‘Unclaimed zone’ between settled, tribal areas irks people

‘Unclaimed zone’ between settled, tribal areas irks people
Female teachers shocked at coach hijacking

PESHAWAR: The deteriorating law and order situation while creating a scare among the public has also caused dereliction of duty among employees of various departments in the law-enforcing agencies, thereby leading the emergence of an ‘unclaimed zone’ between the settled and the tribal areas.Snatching of flying coach (Hiace), aboard female schoolteachers, on main Peshawar-Bara Road on January 19 is testimony to the creation of the ‘unclaimed zone’ because neither the political administration of Bara teshil of Khyber Agency nor police is ready to even register a complaint. Both the authorities——-SHO of Sarband Police Station and tehsildar Bara ——are reluctant to accept the fact that the incident took place in the area of their jurisdiction.
Interestingly, the coach was snatched in broad daylight at Bajri stop on main Peshawar-Bara Road. The area is situated between Peshawar district and Bara tehsil of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas——Khyber Agency. The former governed by the NWFP and the latter controlled by the federal government.The law-enforcing agencies have refused to entertain the complaint, let alone recovering the vehicle, which shows how effective is the government’s writ. Instead of trying to recover the vehicle and provide protection to female teachers serving in the area, the authorities concerned are resorting to dereliction of duty as well as creation of an ‘unclaimed or unmanned zone’ between the settled and tribal areas.The brazen accused disembarked 20 schoolteachers, dragged the driver out and drove away the vehicle towards an unknown location. Not only the female teachers serving in the agency have been shocked and are crying for protection, but also they are reluctant to attend duty in such uncertain situation.Muhammad Rafiq, the driver and owner of the flying coach, is running from pillar to post for getting his vehicle traced and recovered.Rafiq told The News the women schoolteachers had hired his coach for travelling to their place of duty in Khyber Agency and vice versa. He said at 1:00 p.m. on January 19, he was bringing back about 20 teachers when four armed masked men stopped him at Bajri stop on Peshawar-Bara Road, dragged him out ruthlessly, disembarked all the teachers on board and drove away the vehicle. They did not say any thing as to what message they wanted to convey, he added. Rafique said it was not known who were they - militants, car-snatchers or robbers. Just after the incident, he brought the case to the notice of political tehsildar of Bara and SHO of Sarband Police Station, but both of them refused to register a complaint, saying the area did not lie in their jurisdiction.“Now I don’t know where to go to lodge an FIR,” the helpless man complained.Rafique said the teachers were also afraid of travelling to the agency for duty without proper assurance of protection by the administration. The area where the vehicle was snatched and the inmates were forced to alight was not a far-flung or deserted one, but nobody was ready to accept the responsibility of its jurisdiction, the grim-faced Rafiq said.