Daily Times

PESHAWAR: A grand jirga in Kurram region has decided to torch houses of those who will provide shelter to militants or anti-state elements, Member National Assembly (MNA) Sajid Hussain Turi told Daily Times on Friday.

Turi said that some four local tribes after the jira (public meeting) met the local administration and law enforcers and informed them about their several decisions.

He said that he along with other tribesmen held a separate meeting with FC commandant and other sector commanders and informed them about the decisions taken by tribes to further tighten security in the area.

He said that the local administration and law enforcement officials were told that tribes would extend full support to the security forces to maintain peace.

“The tribes have decided that anyone who will offer shelter to militants or Afghans without valid documents then the tribes will collectively torch the house of the person, besides imposing a fine of Rs 100,000 as a punishment,” Turi remarked.

“During the course of the daylong jirga, it was decided that the local tribes would help government keep a check on the border areas with Afghanistan to help stop any infiltration into the Kurram agency – one of the seven tribal agencies in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Shahbir Hussain, a tribal elder in Kurram, who was reached by phone, said: “Some anti-state elements plant explosive devices for which the entire tribe gets in trouble under the Collective Responsibility Act.

“We have decided to adopt all possible measures to stonewall any untoward incident in future in our area and contribute to the stability of this sensitive region,” Hussain remarked.

Turi recalled that during the past few weeks a number of improvised explosive device (IED) blasts took place and as a result a number of tribesmen were arrested under the Collective Responsibility Act of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) – a special set of colonial era law still prevalent in the tribal region. He, however, said that those arrested were release on Friday.

“Fortunately, those blasts caused no casualties,” he recalled. “In addition, we are planning to convey to tribes on the other side of the border in Afghanistan to control those people who create problems on our side otherwise we will deliberate other options according to established local tradition,” he added.

He said that tribal elders from leading tribes such as Mastikhel, Hamzakhel, Alizai and Malikhel attended the jirga and vowed to contribute to maintaining peace and stability in the area.

Tribal elders who attended the jirga reiterated to extend their all-out support to the law enforcement agencies and local administration to ensure peace in the region.

Published in Daily Times, November 4^th 2017.