May 12, 2025
By Kaleem Ullah
LAHORE
When Nek Mohammad, 26, returned from his maternal aunt’s house, he was met with a scene so tragic, he could not believe his eyes.
“I had been stuck at my aunt’s house because of mortar shelling – there had been a clash between the military and the militants in the area,” he said while speaking to Voicepk. “When I finally reached home, I found the entire house covered in dust. My sister’s body was lying on the floor alongside scattered cooking pots, as she had been preparing dinner for the family. Near the doorway of one of the rooms, was my father’s body. I found my 15 year old, mentally-challenged brother, severely injured. All of them were covered in blood.”
Nek Mohammad’s house in Bachki village in the Janikhel area of Bannu district, had been blasted after a mortar shell landed there. While Pakistan and India were caught in a standoff, on May 7 in this area of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP), a clash broke out between the military and the militants in the area.
“Such clashes are a norm in this area,” says a local, who calls these ‘friendly clashes’ – locals believe and that neither the military nor the militants are harming each other, rather it is intended to make the militants stay ‘within limits’. “Its usual that these militants enter the area and open fire on the army, or the military on basis of received intelligence, conducts an operation against them.”
After an exchange of fire occurred that day, the military fired mortars into the area – one of which struck Nek’s home where he lived with his 65-year-old father Hayatullah, and his siblings. The explosion instantly killed both Hayatullah and his daughter, leaving Nek’s deaf and mentally challenged brother badly injured.
Nek was the youngest son of the deceased Hayatullah, and he has vowed not to step back from finding justice for his family.
In a voice trembling with grief, Nek kept repeating one thing during his conversation with Voicepk.
“I’ve endured so much,” he repeated over and over. “The scene left me completely stunned—I had no idea what to do. I could barely summon the strength or even grasp the reality enough to close my father’s and sister’s eyes with my own hands.”
He explained that he had been at his aunt’s place because of the constant firing towards his village.
“I have buried my sister, but I will not bury my father until a case is filed against those responsible for the mortar attack, and they are held accountable regardless of their rank and file,” he said. “No matter how long it takes, my father’s body will remain here during the sit-in. I will sleep beside his body, but I will not back down from my demands.”
A sit-in ensues
In response to the deadly shelling, those from the Jani Khel tribe staged a sit-in protest along with the body of Nek’s father Hayatullah, placing it in front of the police-military fort and demanding justice for the family. The sit-in is being held in front of the main police station adjacent to the military fort. They said that the family had already been struggling with poverty, and had spent over 10 years working in Karachi on meager salaries to build their small home which had now been destroyed because of the mortars.
“A brief clash between the terrorists and the military took place around 5 PM,” said Latif Wazir, a member of the Jani Khel tribe and one of the organizers of the protest. “After the skirmish ended, the military started firing mortars into the village of Bachki. When locals raised their voices on social media and contacted the fort to stop, the shelling paused briefly—but then resumed, which led to these deaths.”
Outlining their demands, Wazir said, “We are not sitting here to make demands for development projects,” he said. “We are
demanding justice for the deceased, security for the local population, an end to the military’s public humiliation of residents, and a stop to mortar and drone attacks on villages. We also demand the reopening of the main Jani Khel–Bannu road, which has been blocked for the past four months.”
He lamented the non-serious attitude of the authorities.
“Apart from a visit by a low-level official yesterday, no one has come to listen to us during this sit-in, which has been ongoing for the past three days—let alone paying any heed to our demands.”
Yet another drone strike
While the sit-in continued, yet another drone strike took place on Sunday, May 11, destroying another house, where 15 people were injured, including four children under five years, and eight women.
Alawaden (30), of the Jani Khel tribe described the second incident.
“We were at the sit-in in front of the Jani khel Military fort, where speeches were underway, when drones flew out of the fort and within 15 minutes we heard the sound of an explosion. It turned out that they had targeted a house in Lower Khwaja Darkhe, a village, resulting in the injuries of 15 people of the same household. We carried them out to the hospital”.
Whenever these incidents happen the military claim that they are targeting the Taliban in the strikes, but Alawdin says that both the Taliban and the military wield weapons and both kill, torture and injure the unarmed civilians, who have no role in the situation.
“This is why we are demanding both the sides to stop this armed warfare and the killings of innocent people,” he said.
History of violence
Jani Khel is a heavily militarized area with a significant presence of Taliban militants and other armed groups. It is located 35 kilometers from the district city of Bannu in KP, bordering North Waziristan to the northwest, Lakki Marwat to the northeast, and other parts of Bannu District to the southwest.
This is not the first time that locals have held protests against growing militancy in the area. Previously, in March 2021, tribesmen from Jani Khel held a sit-in at the same location to protest the deteriorating security situation. That protest later evolved into a march to Islamabad, demanding justice for four teenagers whose bullet-riddled bodies were found buried in a local graveyard.
After a prolonged three-month sit-in, the provincial government under then Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, agreed to their demands. An official agreement was signed on stamp paper, which stated, among other things, that “the government will fairly investigate the incident involving the murdered teenagers, bring the culprits to justice, and take strict action to prevent such incidents in the future.”
Referring to the agreement, Latif Wazir said that the government had acknowledged at the time that ensuring the security of Jani Khel’s people was the responsibility of the state, the provincial government, and the local administration.
“We still have that stamped agreement with us. We are not demanding anything new—only that the government fulfill the promises it made to us,” he says.
Meanwhile the Public Relation’s Officer (PRO) of the Bannu police told Voicepk, that the ‘police had conveyed the
protesters demands to the local administration but had not yet received any response from the Deputy
Commissioner or the military.’
He added that the local police in Jani Khel were providing full protection to the protesters and had been present throughout the three days of the sit-in.
When asked about the protest, the Assistant Commissioner of Bannu, however, rang off without even a comment.
Meanwhile, Mohsin Dawar, Chairman of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and a former Member of the National Assembly (MNA) from North Waziristan—also involved in the previous sit-in—told Voicepk, that innocent lives lost in Jani Khel due to blind shelling by the Pakistan Army was another grim reminder of the human cost of militarization.
“The people of Pukhtunkhwa are paying the price for geo-strategic games, being reduced to mere pawns. A sit-in is ongoing, protesting this injustice, but the state seems immune to the pleas, unbothered by their cries for justice. There is no accountability for these tragedies.”