Turi tribe chases Taliban from Kurram border area
A couple of miles east of Alizai town in the Kurram tribal district, north-western Pakistan, boundary walls of two large compounds are rising fast.There is much more.
Elders of the region's largest tribe, the Turi, say they are building homes for eight families from western parts of Kurram who have volunteered to resettle here.
"Apart from a house, each family will get four acres of land for agricultural use," says Haji Hashim Ali, a Turi elder and in charge of the community project.
"We hope to attract more than 200 families to this colony in a year's time," he says.
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The Turi tribe, which belongs to the Shia sect of Islam, abhors the Taliban who adhere to a hardline Sunni form of the faith and consider Shias to be non-Muslims.
Two years ago, the Turis fought a major battle with the Taliban in the surroundings of Alizai.
They are now consolidating their hold on the region.
To the south of Alizai, across the Kurram river, the tribe is building a 14km (8.6 miles) road to link Alizai with the Turi stronghold of Parachinar in the west.
The Shurko road detours the Sunni-dominated town of Sadda, which is located on the region's main road that links Parachinar with Alizai and the rest of Pakistan.
In Parachinar, the district centre, and all along the Shurko road, community volunteers man checkpoints and also guard the region's airport.
There are no military checkpoints anywhere in the Turi lands from Parachinar to Alizai - and no Taliban.
To a casual observer, this comes as a surprise because Kurram is the most important strategic site from where to launch guerrilla attacks inside Afghanistan.
Its western tip is only 90km (56 miles) from the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Local people say that Taliban started pouring into the area in 2006 and set up base at a mosque in Parachinar.
"When we came to know of their presence, we took up the matter with the authorities, but they refused to expel them, saying the decisions were taken at a much higher level," says Ali Akbar Turi, another local elder.
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In August 2008, local elders decided that if the army wasn't prepared to deal with the Taliban, it was time to raise a tribal force and storm the militant bases themselves.
Najib Hussain, a Kurram resident, fought on a front that finally led to the fall of Bugzai, a village that housed the Taliban's main base in the region, just across the river from Alizai.
"We had about 100 to 150 fighters. We would rotate them in four hourly shifts," he says.
"Fighting was intense. During the first 27 days I only came down twice from my position on the hill to take a bath. On the 27th day, I was hit and had to be carried away to the hospital."
It took the tribal force 46 days of fighting - and the loss of around 400 fighters - to inflict a final defeat on Taliban.
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This is one of the few areas in Pakistan where Christians can worship unmolested. The Taliban have tried to hem the Turi in, but they have worked hard through fighting and through other logistic efforts to get around the Taliban blockades. It is not clear why the government has not helped them, but the US and NATO should give them a hand and help them move their products.
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