The Tirah tragedy was avoidable. As has been its method, the military initially claimed killing 35 militants in the bombing in Sra Vella village inhabited by the largely pro-government Kukikhel Afridi sub-tribe. Even when reports emerged that all or most of the 63 people slain in the bombardment were civilians, the military authorities kept quiet. In fact, the military has refused to concede civilian casualties, or 'collateral damage' in all its offensives todate in Swat and rest of Malakand division and in the tribal areas. Admitting the loss of civilian lives in misdirected aerial strikes, artillery shelling and raids and apologizing for the 'collateral damage' won't do any harm to the image of the military as the people understand that such incidents do happen in battle. In fact, this could reduce the pain of the bereaved families because the usual practice of referring to their loved ones as 'militants' or 'miscreants' invariably contributes to their agony.
The Khyber Agency administration is now required to do damage control and lessen the pain of the families that lost 63 members and are tending to the scores of others who sustained injuries. The political agent of Khyber Agency convened a jirga of the Kukikhel tribal elders on April 12, offered apology for the civilian deaths and announced Rs10 million as compensation for the innocent among those killed and injured in Tirah. However, federal minister for environment, Hamidullah Jan Afridi, who belongs to Khyber Agency, wants the Pakistan Air Force to tender an apology for the deaths of innocent people and is seeking accountability of those responsible for the tragedy.
The irony of the situation is that three sons of late Hameed Khan, whose three-storey house was bombed by the jet-fighters in Sra Vella in the first strike, are reportedly serving in Pakistan's security forces. They were on duty when their house was bombed and five to six of their family members including women and children were killed. The second bombing raid was far more devastating as rescuers who had rushed to retrieve bodies and recover the injured were attacked. Militants by now know that there could be a second strike and, therefore, avoid congregating at the site of an earlier aerial raid. Unassuming civilians often become victim of such attacks. Besides, aerial bombardment invariably causes 'collateral damage' and more so in an area as inaccessible and closed as Tirah valley where the government presence is non-existent and intelligence-gathering is difficult. As someone remarked, the drones with laser-guided missiles are far more on target in remote places than jet-fighters and gunship-helicopters.
The military needs to improve intelligence-gathering to undertake targetted raids to avoid tragic happenings. Undoubtedly, Taliban militants and those aligned to Lashkar-i-Islam, Ansarul Islam and other groups are based in Tirah valley and it may not be easy to differentiate friends from foes due to inadequate intelligence. But not bombing should be the preferred option than unleashing airpower in case of insufficient or faulty intelligence. The Tirah tragedy could likely provoke members of the bereaved families to turn to militancy and seek revenge. And Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would continue to suffer tragedies perpetrated by the militants and, at times, inadvertently at the hands of the military.
