Hotmao

The inhabitants of Hayagay Sharqi in north-west Pakistan paid for their refusal to collaborate with the local Taliban when 49 people died in a suicide bombing on the village’s mosque. If the Taliban thought that would settle matters they were proven wrong when the villagers organised a Lashkar (militia) and went on a rampage through Upper Dir province.

The Taliban militants, led by Afghan commander Amir Khitab, had been operating in Doog Darra near the bombed village. They are believed to be behind the suicide attack to subjugate the people of Hayagay Sharqi. Some 400 villagers banded together to attack five villages in the nearby Doog Darra area that were known Taliban strongholds, said District Coordination Officer Atifur Rehman. He said the citizens’ Lashkar has occupied three of the villages since June 6, and was trying to push the Taliban out of the other two. District Police Chief Ejaz Ahmad said around 200 Taliban militants were putting up a tough resistance, but were surrounded by the villagers.  

Lashkar

Intensifying the offensive against the Taliban militants, the armed villagers of Hayagay Sharqi in Dir Upper District, backed by the people of dozens of other villages, besieged the militants from all sides, killing six more of them. Locals and the Lashkar (militia) sources said 12 Taliban militants, including two commanders, had been killed so far in the siege, while fighting was continuing. Capturing several hamlets, the villagers also torched 21 houses owned by the Taliban and their supporters. The people of Hayagay Sharqi, located in mountains some 20 kilometers east of Dir town, the District headquarters, launched an armed action against the Taliban to avenge the killing of 49 persons in the suicide attack at a mosque on June 5.

Hundreds of people of Hayagay Sharqi and Gharbi, armed with heavy weapons, launched the offensive in the evening of June 6. Locals said the people of Kilot, Doon, Ganshal, Gurrai, Narkun, Hayagay Sharqi, Hayagay Gharbi and 20 villages of Doog Darra banded together to rout the militants. The people of two villages, Panaghar and Maluk Khwar, who were previously supporting the Taliban, also abandoned them and joined the Lashkar. “The Lashkar fighters informed me that so far 12 militants had been killed,” a supporter of the Lashkar said. A man from Sheringal - a nearby town - said the Taliban had stopped putting up resistance. He also said that the Lashkar was making regular advances towards the stronghold of the militants. “They have been encircled from all sides, including Chitral and we are closing in on them,” he said. He put the number of Taliban casualties at 13.