October 26, 2024
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE
Since the past two weeks, the situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district has remained tense, the road closure of the only main highway between Peshawar and Parachinar have resulted in the deaths of at least 10 people, including five infants. On October 26, the closure of the highway reached its fifteenth day. The 10 people who died were all critical patients.
The Thall-Parachinar highway has been closed to traffic since the attack on a passenger convoy that killed 15 people on October 12. This has led to shortages of food, medicines and fuel. In the last two weeks, five children, four of whom were born prematurely, died in the DHQ Hospital in Parachinar, said Dr Mir Hasan Jan, the hospital’s medical superintendent, while speaking to Voicepk.
“The hospital ran out of oxygen cylinders supply and faced a shortage of essential drugs as the supplies could not be replenished since some time. The road closure has hindered referral of critical patients to hospitals in Peshawar,” Dr Jan said. “However now, the district administration has managed to restore the supply of oxygen cylinders to the hospital. “The hospital has also been providing a fresh stock of medicines and the supplies are sufficient for the next 20 to 25 days at least,” added Dr Jan.
Talks fail to break impasse
The district administration has been holding discussions with the tribal elders at the Governor’s Cottage in Parachinar. The two days of discussion between officials and elders of the rival tribes have failed to break the impasse and restore the highway link, sources said.
Deputy Commissioner Javedullah Mehsud did not respond to calls and messages from Voicepk for comments regarding the ongoing negotiations with the tribal elders.
Earlier the provincial government had announced that it would constitute a committee to resolve the land dispute between rival tribes in Parachinar. The land dispute has caused the loss of thousands of lives for the last two decades. However, the government has not yet announced the formation of the committee and refrained from commenting on the ongoing highway blockade since the October 12 killings.
Tribal clashes have claimed over 100 lives on both sides in just the past three months.
Humanitarian Crisis
Meanwhile a serious humanitarian crisis situated has emerged as the entire region has been cut off of necessities.
Local leader Yusuf Lala reveals how the highway closure has cut off the supply of essential commodities, food, medicines, and fuel to the 700,000 residents of Parachinar. “In addition, the 4G internet mobile service has been suspended for the last two weeks, causing great hardship to students and citizens,” he added.
Some schools in the city were closed due to the fuel shortage faced by school vans while attendance of teachers and students in other schools remained thin due to the unavailability of transport. The district administration was successful in restoring partial fuel supply to the city. Vehicles and motorcycles were seen crowding petrol pumps after two fuel tankers managed to reach the city on October 26.
Tribal leader Jalal Bangash called on the provincial government to expedite the restoration of the highway link so that Kurram residents could safely travel to other areas of the province. He said if the government failed to open the highway to traffic, residents would resort to boycotting the polio vaccination drive. The polio drive boycott would lead to international pressure on the government to resolve the problems of people in Kurrum district, he added.