Kurram Survival During the Nine-Month Siege

Since 2018, the severity of violence in Kurram has altered, disregarding Pashtun social norms. Schoolteachers were massacred, children were cruelly murdered, women were kidnapped, and elderly people were beheaded in Kurram during this fresh wave of terror. Additionally, the Thal-Parachinar route – the sole means of connecting Parachinar with the rest of the nation – saw hundreds of fatalities.

On November 21, 2024, a convoy was ambushed along the same road in Bagan, a small city in Lower Kurram resulting in the ruthless slaughter of 42 persons, including women and infants. In response, Bagan City was destroyed by fire on November 22, 2024. The event that set the stage for the afore-mentioned events was the October 12, 2024, attack on a vehicle carrying Sunni members from the Muqbal tribe in Kunj Alizai (a village in Upper Kurram); when unidentified armed people opened fire on a vehicle in that convoy, 15 innocent people including women and children were brutally killed. The Thal-Parachinar route was closed for 9 months after the Kunj Alizai incident in October 2024, which sparked fresh sectarian unrest in Kurram.

Despite the agreement being signed by both communities, the government failed to implement its writ in the area. Three consecutive convoys were targeted in Lower Kurram and the local people plundered all the loaded trucks while the police and FC individuals observed the whole scene without taking any action. Targeting the foodstuff vehicles on the Thal-Parachinar route was a clear violation of the peace agreement in which the provincial government was a mediator. Local traders suffered a heavy loss in previous incidents in which their millions of assets were looted and vehicles were burned down.

The famine that resulted from targeting those food vans in Lower Kurram and the closure of the Thal-Parachinar route for 8 consecutive months affected both the rich and the poor, equally, in Parachinar. Fortunately, we managed to survive. In addition to the scarcity of food, the shutdown of the main highway in Upper Kurram caused people to die from lack of medication. At Kurram, the lives of thousands of people with heart problems and diabetes were in danger. Since October 2024, about 600,000 people had been under siege for 9 months. Additionally, the Deputy Commissioner and the Assistant Commissioner of Upper Kurram were among the hundreds injured and over 300 people killed in the chaos. Additionally, there was no medication available for the injured at the local hospitals.

Since 2007, Kurram’s residents have been experiencing psychological and emotional collapse. The military warned Kurram residents to gather weapons for the authorities in that dire situation without providing them with any assurance of security rather than normalising the situation there. Except for the terrorists who are making things worse, nobody in Kurram is safe during this gloomy time. By acting as role models in both Upper and Lower Kurram, those radicals have deliberately militarised the brains of our young people. Kurram locals have little control over the sponsored terrorists’ activities, and those militants pollute our youth’s minds through social media. We have little control over the psychological effects on youngsters and we cannot stop them from turning violent. They no longer want to attend classes as a result of the 4 months that Parachinar’s institutions and schools were shut due to fuel shortage

In the past 2 months, the fuel crisis issue has been resolved but our social life has not returned to its pre-October condition. For the residents of Parachinar, the Thal-Parachinar route, which is essential to our survival, remained closed. Parachinar residents have been taking ambulances to Peshawar for the last 2 months. It used to take us 5 hours to get to Peshawar, but now it takes 10. Without any amenities, the residents of Upper Kurram are forced to wait in the scorching heat.

Kurram’s residents are in a despicable condition, and all they ask of the Pakistani government is peace. Since October 12, 2024, the entire district has been under siege. Due to the suspension of 4G internet services, people abroad are unable to communicate with their relatives. Now is the moment for the provincial authorities to address the situation. If the provincial government does not take the road blockade seriously, violence in the district will further escalate. The people of Kurram are also citizens of Pakistan; they also have the legal right to live peacefully in their ancestral lands. Law enforcement agencies should revive their policies in Kurram before it’s too late.

The writer holds M.Phil. in History from Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad and resides in Parachinar, District Kurram.