People from more than 75 villages of Mohmand Agency have started to leave their homes, as a military operation is on cards in the strategic tribal agency to clear the area of Taliban militants, officials said on Thursday. Thousands of men, women, children and elderly people were leaving their houses to take refuge with their relatives in the suburban areas of Peshawar or inside the city, Daily Times learnt from those leaving their homes.
The villages of Rahim Kor, Banglo, Dab Kor, Karerai, Aisho Kor, Zarif Kor, Sheen Derai and Badio were deserted after residents left. Taliban militants carrying Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were patrolling different areas of Mohmand with impunity, eyewitnesses claimed.
Deployment: Army contingents were also moving from Peshawar towards the Warsak Dam and Shin Saro areas while convoys with artillery were seen moving towards the agency where Taliban had blown up a school in Shin Derai on Wednesday night.
Security officials told Daily Times that an operation was likely to be launched in the next three days. The officials said the forces were deployed near the strategic Warsak Dam, which is located on the Peshawar-Mohmand border.
According to locals, people had been fleeing the villages of the lower Mohmand Agency for three days. Ali Abbas, a store owner, told Daily Times that 75 percent people had vacated their houses and more were shifting from the area.
Abbas said many families, whose male relatives are abroad, were facing problems. With no male guardian and no relatives in Peshawar, the families could neither stay nor leave their houses.
Many women with children were seen crossing the makeshift Michani Bridge on Kabul River to move into Peshawar. The bridge had collapsed three years ago.
Mohmand Agency is located some 23 kilometres from Peshawar. Besides Peshawar, the agency borders Charsadda district at Shabqadar, Bajaur and Khyber agencies and the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.