The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed deep shock over reports that a number of civilians, including children, have been killed, allegedly as a result of aerial bombing in the Tirah area of Khyber district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The organization demanded that “the authorities carry out an immediate and impartial inquiry into the incident and hold those responsible to account.” The HRCP’s statement added that “the state is constitutionally bound to protect all civilians’ right to life, which it has repeatedly failed to secure.”
So far, relevant authorities have not issued any official statement with details of the reported incident. Dawn.com has reached out to Khyber Deputy Commissioner Bilal Shahid and District Police Officer Mazhar Iqbal for comment, but has not received a response.
A senior police officer in the area, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said that “the jets targeted four houses, which were completely destroyed.” However, the officer did not specify who carried out the attack.
KP Assembly Speaker Babar Swati called on both the federal and provincial governments to conduct a “transparent and immediate investigation into the incident, identify those responsible, and not only provide immediate relief and compensation to the affected families but also take comprehensive measures for their rehabilitation.” A statement on his X account expressed sorrow over the “martyrdom of innocent civilians and the destruction of homes due to the bombardment by jet aircraft.”
Sohail Afridi, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister for Communication and Works, also raised his voice on the matter during a KP Assembly session. He described the incident as a “horrifying tragedy” that occurred at 2 a.m. in Tirah. He alleged that 25 people, including women and children, were killed when “mortar and bombs were dropped” on locals. While he blamed the security forces for the incident, the responsible party has not been independently confirmed.
Mohammad Iqbal Khan Afridi, a member of the National Assembly from Khyber, shared his sorrow in a video message in Pashto. He said elderly women and children were killed in “shelling by jets” and urged people to go to the site to protest the killings. He stated that this was not the first time such an incident had happened, adding that “the killing of civilians has become a routine.”
In a similar incident in May, 22 people, including seven children, were injured in a suspected quadcopter strike in the Wana tehsil of South Waziristan district. A week earlier, four children were killed and five others injured in a suspected quadcopter munitions drop in the Mir Ali tehsil of North Waziristan district. In that case, the military later clarified that security forces were “falsely implicated” and that the attack was carried out by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
