On the border, a village that turns ghost

Delawar Jan

SHALTALO, Upper Dir: A frightening silence prevailed in this ghost village, only broken by fluttering of tree leaves caused by wind. Daily life activities were missing—no human was seen or their voice heard.

A tiny market of the village was closed and deserted. A rocky and dusty road to Shaltalo had hardly any vehicle running. The maize fields were unattended. Schools were closed, with a couple of them burned down, and children missing from educational institutions—even from streets.

It seemed as if people had never lived in the village. An old man with a can of spring water, walking up the desolate bazaar, gave a sign of life. 

“Residents have migrated to Samarbagh area of Lower Dir. The village is empty,” said the resident, Khan Zameen, 60. “Aged persons like me have stayed back at each home only to look after property,” he added.

Shaltalo village was overrun by alleged Afghan Taliban earlylast Wednesday, and they brutally killed 27 officials of police and Levies manning a post there, causing terror in the area.

A village nestled in forested mountains that are dotted by around 60 houses, villagers said it was only seven kilometres away from Afghanistan’s Kunar province. 

Noticeable sites in the village were the destroyed school-cum-post and a nearby mosque. A Pakistani flag still fluttered at the rubble-strewn post, but it no more served as a school or a post. Students or personnel of the security forces were no more its occupants.

Sandbag bunkers still existed but remained unmanned. A trench outside the post was abandoned while belongings of the Levies and police officials littered in the fields.

A nearby mosque was also a scene of horror and devastation. It no more served as mosque, as people have abandoned it. Quranic verses on the walls of the mosque were riddled with bullet marks.

The Imam who resisted militants has been gunned down in the attack and the mosque vandalised. In this holy building, residents said, the militants had shot dead three personnel who had taken shelter here. 

People said they had a hunch that something of this intensity could happen. They said residents begged all administration officials not to establish a post in the village as it could attract militants to attack it.

“We told them (officials) that we could not withstand Taliban and therefore don’t give them an excuse for attack. But nobody heeded to our demand,” the villagers said.

They said army had already collected weapons from them, rendering them almost unarmed against the militants.  

Recalling the attack, they said the Taliban had threatened them not to resist, saying they had come only to attack the “infidel security forces.” They said it was a day of horror, as they had seen bodies scattered all over.

Villagers said they rescued around six personnel by dodging the militants. “We impersonated them as shepherds by giving them cattle, children in their arms and women to lead them,” a resident, Muhammad Riaz, said.

Though Zameen said two families returned to a nearby Sunrai, a few residents, who came out after seeing journalists, said people were terrified and didn’t want to come back.

“There is still fear of another attack by Taliban,” a young Hameesh Gul said. Riaz said he came to the village to see his abandoned home.

“I would have gone had I not seen you people,” he said. One Said Nawab said the elders of the village had decided not to open the market. But Zameen said it was of no use to open market when the village was vacant.

A large number of security forces have been deployed in the area. One saw army soldiers patrolling roads and leaving for other border areas.

Officials said they had established writ over the area and were in full control now. “Such attacks, in the first place, will not recur but if they repeat it they will not go Scott-free,” an official said, requesting anonymity as he was not mandated to speak to media.

The officials said they had established “a number of posts” along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at “threatened areas.” They said the entire area had been searched and no militant was found. “It’s purged of militants,” one official said.

Despite Pakistan’s demand from the US and Nato to take action against alleged sanctuaries in Afghanistan and to stop militants’ infiltration into Pakistan, officials said they didn’t have support from Nato from across the border.

“They (Nato forces) are not interested in taking action against Afghan Taliban. Instead, they are abetting militants in carrying out attacks inside Pakistan,” one official believed.

In Shahikot, a town approximately four kilometres short of Shaltalo, armed villagers patrolled. Residents in Shaltalo said that around 150-200 members of a lashkar, or village militia, were manning positions in areas near the border to stave off Taliban attacks.