PESHAWAR: The administration in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Khyber district on Friday announced that preparations are underway to evacuate residents from the Maidan area of Tirah Valley in view of a planned security operation.
District officials said the relocation of residents will take place from January 10 to January 25, with a three-day registration process currently ongoing at Paindi Cheena. The total population of the Maidan area is estimated at around 130,000.
So far, approximately 2,500 families have been registered. Each displaced family has been provided advance financial assistance of Rs250,000, while an additional Rs50,000 per month will be given to help them arrange accommodation of their choice.
The administration said families whose houses are completely destroyed during the operation will receive compensation of Rs3 million, whereas those with partially damaged homes will be paid Rs1 million.
Officials added that the operation against militants is expected to be completed within two months. The rehabilitation and return of displaced families is scheduled to begin from April 5.
The planned operation comes amid a sharp rise in terrorist incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which shares a porous border with Afghanistan. According to an annual report by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, the province recorded the highest increase in terrorism-related incidents in 2025.
Fatalities from terrorist attacks in KP rose from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 in 2025, reflecting a year-on-year increase of more than 40%.
Earlier this week, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said nearly 71% of all terrorist incidents reported in 2025 occurred in KP. Addressing a press conference on January 6, he attributed the trend to what he described as a “politically conducive environment and a flourishing political-criminal-terror nexus” in the province.
The ISPR chief said law enforcement agencies conducted 75,175 intelligence-based operations nationwide during the year, including 14,658 in KP. Of the 5,397 terrorism incidents reported across the country in 2025, 3,811 took place in the province.
