Dec 29 2013 – Shaheen ullah sat unable to express what had happened that day. As the Pakistan Army
opened indiscriminate fire on the people in Mirali, he had taken his family to his uncle’s mud home for protection. Instead, mortars fell through the home of his uncle, a government school teacher at the Mirali high school, and killed 2 women and 5 children.
Till then, Shaheen ullah had never imagined that the security forces would target his family. “All of our family members are government servants and 16th and 17th grade officers.” Shaheen ullah said one of the women expired after he was unable to take her to the hospital due to the army’s curfew in the area. She died in his arms.
Another resident Mohammad Tayyeb lost his wife, 2 daughters and a son in the artillery attack. The family had huddled in the corner of the room. “The children were crying” from the sound of the heavy artillery. At that moment, a shell fell into the room killing his wife and all of his children. Tayyeb says he is in shock and has little interest in life. “What was my fault?” he asked of the government. Tayyeb broke down crying. “What was the fault of my wife and small kids? Were they terrorists?”
The army claims that it killed scores of militants. Residents say that most of the dead are civilians. The attack began after a military convoy was attacked on its way to a checkpoint on December 18th. Two days later, hundreds of students from North Waziristan took to the streets in Peshawar to protest the army attacks.
Asked why he thought he his home had been attacked, Shaheen ullah cried. “I have done nothing wrong against anyone.” Yet, today his home is empty of women and children, he says. “I can’t forget the children.”
Mohammad says that such action will only increase the anger of the public in Mirali against the government, which repeatedly fails to distinguish between the innocent, including small children and the enemy. “The government and the security forces have to protect our lives not to take our lives,” he added.
[…] were killed and that all victims were militant fighters. But digital magazine, Tanqeed, reported that 25 of the casualties were guests at a hotel near a military check post. The army subsequently […]