ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s information ministry on Sunday denied reports the army has ordered depopulation in the northwestern Tirah Valley ahead of a planned anti-militant offensive, stating that any movement of residents from the area is voluntary. 

The denial from the government comes as residents of Tirah Valley in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province bordering Afghanistan flee their homes ahead of a planned military operation by the army against militants, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group. 

Despite major military operations in the mid-2010s, Tirah Valley has remained a stronghold for insurgents, prompting authorities to plan what they describe as a targeted clearance.

“The government has taken notice of misleading claims in circulation regarding alleged ‘depopulation’ from Tirah Valley on the orders of the Army,” the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) said in a statement on Sunday. 

“These assertions are baseless, malicious, and driven by ulterior motives aimed at creating alarm among the public, disinformation against security institutions and furthering vested political interest.”

The ministry said Pakistan’s federal government and the armed forces had not issued directives for any such depopulation of the territory. It clarified that law enforcement agencies are “routinely conducting targeted, intelligence-based operations strictly against terrorist elements” with care to avoid disruption to peaceful civilian life. 

It said locals are increasingly concerned over presence of the “khawarij,” a term the military and government frequently use for the TTP, in Tirah Valley and desire peace and stability in the area.

The information ministry mentioned that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Relief, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Department issued a notification on Dec. 26 last year for the release of funds, reportedly Rs4 billion [$14.24 million], for the “anticipated temporary and voluntary movement of population from certain localities of Tirah.”

It also said that the notification mentioned that the deputy commissioner of Khyber District, where Tirah Valley is located, said the voluntary movement of people reflects the views of the local population articulated through a jirga at the district level. 

“Hence any stated position of the Provincial Government or their officials being conveyed to media that the said migration has anything to do with the Armed Forces is false and fabricated,” the information ministry said. 

“Given with malafide intent to gain political capital and unfortunately malign security institutions and therefore highly regrettable.”

The evacuation has exposed tensions between the provincial government, run by former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, and the military establishment over the use of force in the region.

“We have neither allowed the operation nor will we ever allow the operation,” KP Law Minister Aftab Alam Afridi said earlier this month, arguing that past military campaigns had failed to deliver lasting stability.

Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shareef Chaudhry has previously defended security operations as necessary as militant attacks surge in the country. 

In a recent briefing, Chaudhry said security forces carried out 75,175 intelligence-based operations nationwide last year, including more than 14,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, attributing the surge in violence to what he described as a “politically conducive environment” for militants.