KURRAM: As part of the recent peace agreement, six more bunkers were destroyed in lower Kurram, while a convoy of 12 vehicles carrying essential food items and medicines reached the Bagan area of the tribal district on Wednesday.

According to administration officials, three bunkers each in Khar Kallay and Balishkhel were blown up with explosives on Wednesday, taking the number of such structures to 16 since the signing of a peace agreement between two warring groups early this month.

They said tangible steps were being taken for the enforcement of the 14- point accord.

Meanwhile, a relief convoy consisting of 12 vehicles with food items and medicines reached Bagan from the Tal area in Hangu district in the day.

12 vehicles with essential food items, drugs reach Bagan

Mufti Shah Nawaz and other local elders thanked Governor Faisal Karim Kundi for facilitating the delivery of relief supplies to Bagan.

He said the governor had contacted the UN agencies to secure aid for the people of Kurram.

“We are thankful to Unicef and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and look forward to further assistance in the near future,” he said.

Students from Parachinar and adjoining areas demanded immediate opening of roads, complaining route blockades are causing learning losses.

They warned if they were not transported to Peshawar in a timely manner, they would stage a protest sit-in.

Murtaza Hussain, from Upper Kurram, said he had got admission to a US university but he feared he would miss a visa interview at the US Embassy in Islamabad due to the closure of roads.

Musadiq Hussain, from Orakzai tribal district, said he worked as an engineer in Parachinar and had secured admission in Russia but got stuck in Kurram due to road closures.

“I can’t make it to Peshawar, so my future is at stake,” he said, demanding his and other stranded people’s transportation to the provincial capital in a convoy of vehicles or helicopters.

ROADS CLOSED: Despite peace agreement, the main transportation routes in Kurram district have been closed for four months, paralysing life for the local population.

Students, patients, businessmen and those working abroad are the worst affected.

Furthermore, there are complaints about a rise in deaths among patients, including children, due to a lack of medical supplies in the local hospitals.

People in Parachinar told Dawn that they had long been awaiting relief supplies and medicines, whose unavailability was causing malnutrition and deaths among children.

Social worker Mir Afzal Khan claimed that Parachinar Hospital and health centres in adjoining areas had reported death of around 450 patients, including 215 children, due to lack of medicines and services.

He said road closures had blocked the delivery of relief goods and assistance sent by the United Nations for over500,000 population of Parachinar and residents of more than 100 surrounding villages.

The social worker alleged that the aid was distributed to those who had besieged the population.

He said food and other essential goods brought in by traders were sold at double the routine price, to the misery of poor residents.

Trade union president Haji Imdad said trucks with food supplies had been awaiting permission in Tal for weeks to enter Parachinar, forcing traders to pay high rents and causing goods to decay in vehicles.

The district administration claimed that it had taken special measures to open roads and demolish bunkers as part of the peace agreement, while every possible effort was being made to provide relief to the affected families.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2025