...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...Qaumi Jirga has urged all stakeholders to take decisive action against hard boyz to ensure sustainable peace in the valley.
The jirga, a forum of civil society groups, was organised here on Sunday which was addressed by its president Mukhtiar Khan Yousufzai, Sher
Shah Khan, Haji Zahid Khan, Mohammad Ali Khan and others.
Speakers said that all state institutions should play their due role for lasting peace in Swat and other parts of Malakand Division. They said that there was no room for terrorist groups in Swat and local people could not tolerate militancy anymore.
Expressing satisfaction over the prevailing situation, the speakers said that government should take more serious steps to wipe out militancy from the area. The forum demanded of the provincial government to reconstruct the main road from Landakai to Mingora up to Kanjo as, they said, it was very important for revival of tourism in the region.
They added that the law enforcement agencies should not harass tourists without reason at various checkpoints and checkposts. The speakers also demanded reconstruction of educational institutions which were destroyed in militancy.
They said that the security forces should vacate schools in order to bring these facilities in use for educational purposes.
Taking strong exception to frequent movement of officials in educational institutions meant for females, the elders asked the government to restrict the visits of irrelevant officials in girls schools and colleges.