The police fired shells at the mourners staging a sit-in in front of the Governor’s House in Peshawar along with the bodies of their relatives. The shells caused a stampede among the protesters. Taking advantage of the situation, police took away the bodies in trucks.

Earlier, thousands of angry protesters from restive area of Tehsil Bara, Khyber Agency, staged a sit-in outside the Governor’s House on Wednesday along with 15 bullet-riddled bodies, demanding an end to the military operation and lifting the three-year-long curfew. At 10am, the protesters’ entry was blocked by the political administration near its office.

The protesters, however, succeeded in reaching Governor’s House to stage a sit-in on Sher Shah Suri Road. The sit-in was attended by more than 3,000 affected people and leaders of various political parties. The protesters chanted slogans against the army and the security forces stationed in Khyber Agency and blamed them for the killings.

They were holding placards and chanting slogans against the ongoing military operation in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), particularly in Bara, Khyber Agency.It was reported that the bullet-riddled bodies were found in the Alam Gudar area of tehsil Bara, Khyber Agency, Tuesday night. The protesters blamed security forces for killing their loved ones in Alam Godar area in the volatile tehsil Bara. The locals said that eight among the dead belonged to one family, including a mentally retarded person.

Three others among the dead were also reported to be members of another family. The protesters claimed the people killed in the operation were not militants, but were peaceful citizens. “Enough is enough, we can’t see more dead bodies of our innocent children, women and youth for doing nothing,” the protesters said.

They appealed to the Supreme Court to take action against those responsible for the killings and form a judicial commission to probe the incident. The Bara tribesmen were sitting outside the Governor’s House with caskets and bodies of their family members till the filing of the report.