September 22, 2025
Staff Report
During the night of September 21 (late Monday), the remote Shaudala area of the Tirah Valley, experienced one of the deadliest events.
On Monday, this small area in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa – bordering Afghanistan – saw the funerals of 21 people including 12 children , after they were brutally killed in what the locals report were airstrikes by jet aircrafts.
But security sources have rejected accusations of aerial bombardment, stating that the casualties occurred after an explosion inside an IED factory, which was set up by militants.
In a protest against the incident, a demonstration was held at Khyber Chowk in Bara — the district’s main commercial hub — during which the Pak-Afghan highway was blocked for three hours. The protest was attended by local political leaders, including PTI’s National Assembly Member Iqbal Afridi and Provincial Assembly member Abdul Ghani Afridi.
During consultations led by the Bara Siyasi Ittehad (Bara Political Alliance), a conglomeration of all local political parties and traders, a decision was made for a public funeral for all those who have been killed, so that they could be attended by all.
Hashim Afridi, the President of the Bara Siyasi Ittehad, said that after consulting with local elders and the victims’ families, the bodies would be shifted to Peshawar, where a protest would be staged in front of the Corps Commander’s House.
Afridi claimed that 17 people were killed in one household and five in another, including 12 children as young as six months. The other casualties include six women and three males.
Later however the bereaved families decided to bury their loved ones in their respective hometowns. Local political parties will be holding a meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) to discuss and chart a way forward.
Provincial Assembly member Abdul Ghani Afridi, who also joined the protest, said that any decision made by the locals will be implemented.
He announced that until the government addressed public concerns about the incident, he would boycott all assembly sessions and proceedings in protest. However, National Assembly member Iqbal Afridi opposed this decision, arguing that the protest should be launched in Peshawar instead of Tirah, as people started to collect at the location where the bombing had taken place. This stance angered other participants of the meeting, most of whom rejected his proposal.
‘Militants not the military’
A purported statement circulated in the WhatsApp groups of local journalists, said to be from FC North, termed the incident as ‘propaganda aimed at maligning Pakistan’s armed forces’. The statement said that the Khawarij (militants) had set up an IED factory in a civilian area. An initial explosion inside the factory triggered collateral damage, killing 12 to 14 terrorists and, unfortunately, 8 to 10 civilians as terrorists once again used families, homes, and mosques as human shields.
It further noted that the so-called “civilian bombing” claim was part of a smear campaign to protect terrorists and undermine Pakistan’s sacrifices. It emphasized that Pakistan’s operations remain solely focused on eliminating the Khawarij menace and that no propaganda will deter its resolve to protect the local population.
However, no official statement from ISPR has been given till the publication of this report.
Member of National Assembly (MNA) Muhammad Iqbal Afridi from District Khyber disagreed with this statement circulating on Whatsapp, terming it a ‘propaganda by state institutions’. Speaking to Voicepk he said that “the provincial government had imposed a complete ban on drone attacks and other forms of bombardment in the area, which had been violated, resulting in the killing of innocent civilians, including women and children.”
He added that he would raise the issue on the floor of the House and request the government to stop the killing of tribal people.
People’s lives in ruins
A video circulating on social media shows a unnamed local youth standing on the ruins of a destroyed house, where rescue efforts are underway.
In the video he narrates that jets arrived at around 2 a.m. and continued bombing until 4 a.m., hitting two homes and several sites at the foothills of the mountains. He added that the house of a local man, Gul Akbar, was among those targeted, resulting in the highest number of deaths.
Speaking of rescue efforts, he said that residents, along with members of a missionary group staying at a local mosque, began retrieving bodies from the rubble at dawn. Since there were no women available to assist locally, women from nearby villages were brought in to shroud and prepare the female victims for burial. The veracity of these claims, however could not be verified by Voicepk.
A troubled region
The Shaudala area of Tirah Valley lies south of Khyber district, bordering Orakzai, and is home to the Afridi tribe’s Akakhel clan. In the past also, the area witnessed several military operations against armed groups, forcing locals to migrate. Recently, however, incidents of unrest have resurfaced in the region.
At the end of July this year, five people were killed and 17 wounded when security forces opened fire on demonstrators protesting a mortar shell strike in central Tirah. At that time, security officials claimed that armed men among the protestors had fired first.
However, after videos of the incident went viral on social media, the government provided financial assistance to victims through a jirga and promised that such incidents would not be repeated.
While referring to that incident, MNA Iqbal Afridi said, “The state institutions have opened a factory of lies through which it is misleading the rest of the country. “The eyewitness and residents have seen that it was an aerial bombardment rather than a blast at the IED manufacturing factory, in which many innocent people have been killed”. He said.
The Chairman of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and former MNA, Mohsin Dawar, shared the video of the incident and wrote on his X formerly Twitter, “In Tirah, Khyber, the state’s indiscriminate bombardment drenched women and children in blood. Our existence is sometimes sacrificed to terrorism, and at other times made a target of state oppression. This blood is before the entire nation, yet the expected silence will once again expose the horrific face of state prejudice and centralization.”
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also issued a statement on X, demanding an impartial inquiry into the incident.
The statement read: “HRCP is deeply shocked to learn that a number of civilians, including children, have been killed, allegedly as a result of aerial bombing in Tirah, Khyber district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. We demand that the authorities carry out an immediate and impartial inquiry into the incident and hold to account those responsible. The state is constitutionally bound to protect all civilians’ right to life, which it has repeatedly failed to secure.”