Who Ordered The Evacuation From Tirah: Federal Government or KP Provincial Government?

ISLAMABAD: The state of Pakistan and its machinery both provincial and federal, seems to be in a tailspin as to how to deal with the crisis of displacement of local residents from Tirah Valley in extremely harsh weather conditions of snowfall and snowstorm.

While the federal and provincial government are fighting it out in an atmosphere of political tensions amid verbal clashes between the ministers of two governments, thousands of local Tirah valley residents are left under the open sky to fetch for themselves and their families.

The ongoing blame game between ministers of federal government and KP government as to who ordered the residents to leave their residences in and around Tirah valley has further vitiated the political environment.

The provincial government alleged that a committee, led by senior military commander and IG Frontier Corps, forced local tribal elders to vacate their homes. He claims these “behind-closed-doors” decisions imposed a military operation on the valley despite public and provincial opposition.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif strongly denied that the military or federal government issued any evacuation orders. They describe the movement as a “routine seasonal migration”–a claim which has been strongly refuted by a BBC Urdu Service report which directly quotes the local residents, who are slowly moving on the road towards urban areas in the province while the snowstorm and snowfall is causing serious obstruction in their way.

The provincial governor Faisal Karim Kundi alleged that the provincial government issued a “barrage of statements” regarding a potential operation and these statements created unnecessary fear that forced residents to flee the valley.

Pakistani media outlets have been publishing news stories directly from the travel path of caravans of local residents searching for shelter on their way to urban areas of the province. For instance Daily the News International has reported that the displacement of local population was the result of a  mutually agreed plan between local jirga elders and the KP Provincial Government to relocate the vulnerable population to safe locations in the urban areas of the province. Other English language outlets reported the provincial government’s claim that a 24-member committee—led by the Peshawar Corps Commander and IG Frontier Corps—imposed the decision on elders “behind closed doors”.

Some of the newspapers have quoted the local residents who blamed both governments, “asserting that the decision for a military operation and subsequent forced displacement was taken jointly after weeks of consultations starting in December 2025”.

While the defense Minister Khawaja Asif said that there were around 500 TTP fighters hiding in the Tirah valley, he, however, denied that the government or the military was planning a large-scale military operation in the border district.
It seems that the government and military intend to distinguish between large scale operations in which Division level military formations take part and the small scale raids including Intelligence Based Operations (IBO) in which small groups of troops engage in fighting with the militants.

Perhaps the government’s intentions are to make people believe that at the moment only small scale raids or Intelligence based operations are being carried out in Tirah Valley, which, apparently, don’t require mass displacement of local residents.

The issue of who ordered the evacuation from Tirah Valley is currently a subject of intense political dispute between the  ministers of the Federal Government and KP Provincial Government. It seems everybody seems to have forgotten about the 500 militants, who, according to Defense Minister, Khawaja Asif were hiding in the Tirah Valley. There are reports in the media that some fighters belonging to ISIS were also present in the valley.