PESHAWAR: Tribal elders from Pakistan’s northwestern Kurram region on Saturday called for negotiations with Afghanistan and the opening of cross-border trade routes during a consultative gathering arranged by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial administration to discuss the overall security situation in the region.
Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur has launched a series of regional jirgas, or tribal councils, to deliberate on issues affecting the province, particularly its tribal districts, amid a surge of militant violence and counter-operations by security forces. The gatherings bring together tribal elders, local lawmakers and officials to find a way out of the current security situation in the area.
The last in the series brought together influential figures from Upper, Central and Lower Kurram, a former semi-autonomous tribal area bordering Afghanistan with a long history of violent conflicts that have claimed hundreds of lives. Last year alone, tribal clashes along sectarian lines in the district persisted for months, killing more than 100 people and displacing many more.
“For a permanent solution to the problem, a powerful council comprising federal and provincial governments, security agencies and local tribal elders should be formed to hold negotiations with Afghanistan, because Kurram’s peace is linked to Afghanistan,” the jirga said in its recommendations.
