The KP apex committee, in its Friday meeting, decided on the elimination of bunkers and deweaponisation in Kurram district to prevent a recurrence of the sectarian violence which recently caused at least 130 people to be killed there. Is this a case of ‘too little, too late’ or ‘better late than never’? To say the least,holding the meeting at all, after a week of killing apparently exhausted the blood-lust on both sides, may actually be a case of bolting the stable-door after the horse had bolted. It should be realised that the trouble is at root sectarian and tribal, and the government’s main responsibility is to make sure that the tribal flames are not fanned, nor sectarian sentiments. The main factor behind these disputes are disputes over land. The provincial government set up a land commission in 2021, and the current outbreak, which comes after the last one in 2007, has come after that. Sectarian sentiments are intertwined, and the involvement of those not involved in the land disputes, is ensured by this sectarian colouring.
The apex committee has apparently decided to address symptoms rather than root causes. It has set up the law enforcing agencies for a punishing enforcement effort, with the risk of further casualties. True, no one should have bunkers, but those who have built them have only to point to very recent history, when there were three major outbreaks of violence between 1987 and 2007. It does not help that the ceasefire which ended the violence is expected to break down in the near future. Deweaponization is basically not an option, because Pakhtun culture is essentially one where possessing weapons is essentially mandatory, and because the local history of violence inclines the residents to possess weapons.
Within this situation, it is essential that the provincial government play its role in solving the land disputes. KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur has come under fire for being in Islamabad, trying to boost the rally for his party leader’s release, and for showing more concern about putative victims of firing on that rally, declaring mourning for victims whose existence has not yet been proven, while not paying any attention to the Kurram dead, who certainly do exist. Of course, there is no partisan benefit in them, as opposed to those supposed killed in Islamabad. He can diffuse this if he got the are settled, which needs the land disputes to end. At the moment, there are simply too many for people to ignore.
