Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Zahid Khan has slammed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur for not visiting the Kurram area after over 41 people were killed and marching to Islamabad.

“Everyone has their priorities. We should ask our CM, you are from Dera Ismail Khan and what is the distance from Kurram to DI Khan? How many times you have visited Kurram and why did you choose to visit Islamabad instead of visiting the area,” he said while appearing on Rubaroo which was aired on Aaj News on Friday.

More than 40 people, including women, were killed when unidentified gunmen sprayed bullets at Peshawar-bound passenger vans in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district on November 21. The van was coming from Parachinar.

Clashes following the attack left more people dead and attacked houses. The provincial government brokered a seven-day truce, but it did not hold. Later, local tribal elders made renewed negotiations for a truce and it was expected that a truce would take effect soon.

Zahid blamed the spillover Afghan war, saying that his former party called for protection for the people when the Taliban took over the Afghan government. “You cannot separate banned TTP from Afghan Taliban as they have fought together. This is not possible.”

He wondered what the government was doing two months before the Kurram attack. The PML-N leader was of the view that such attacks would have been avoided if the authorities visited the area before.

Zahid warned that the situation would get worse if leaders did not pay attention to the conditions.

Defence analyst Major General (retd) Tariq Rashid, who was also on the show, stated that priorities matter and the government should bring legislation to punish terrorist sympathisers and facilitators.

He went on to add that the elected political leaders would have to visit their areas to take ownership, patronise the military and conduct operations with them. “We will have to create a combined unit of command where the army, FC, police, and LEAs will work together.”

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Another guest on the show PML-N Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani stressed the need for working together against terrorism. He added that it was not a religious conflict.

When asked about the military operation against terrorist organisations in Balochistan, the defence analyst said that the operation would be “different”. Rashid, who served in the province in 2007, said there were areas which still lacked proper roads. According to him, far-flung areas should be connected to cities to have development.

At one point, PML-N’s Zahid said: “Any operation will not be a success until civilian government owns it will.”