Grand Jirga for peace in Parachinar in three weeks: Rehman Malik

ISLAMABAD, Jun 9 (APP): Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior A. Rehman Malik on Monday said that a grand jirga would be convened within three weeks to ensure peace and order in Parachinar.

Responding to a comment made by Senator Abbas Kumeli, Rehman Malik told the Upper House of the Parliament that the government is committed to resolving the sectarian clashes in Parachinar. However, some foreign elements are involved in igniting such clashes not only in Parachinar but also in other parts of the country.

However, he regretted that some people from both the communities were being used in the hands of foreign elements involved in marring peace of the area.

He said a jirga comprising both communities was convened recently but it could not bring positive results following a clash ignited after they could not reach consensus over certain points.

Rehman Malik told the House that two MNAs are engaged in bringing reconciliation between the two communities over convening jirga on the issue. He said the next jirga would be convened in Peshawar or Kohat.

He said law enforcement agencies have foiled a terrorist plot in the federal capital and also arrested nine alleged suicide bombers along with three explosive-laden vehicles carrying more than 1,000 kg explosive material.

Advisor to prime minister said he had also informed Afghan President Hamid Karzai regarding the elements involved in subversive activities from across the border inside Pakistan. He substantiated his words saying that some phone calls have also been detected from Afghan border in which two persons were dealing about a killing for ransom.

However, he said the government is taking strict security measures to restore peace in the area, adding that a new Inspector General has been appointed and a number of intelligence agencies personnel have been increased.

Malik urged all the political and religious leaders to render their services to resolve the situation, adding that “the solution to the problem lies only in the collective efforts.”

ISLAMABAD, Jun 9 (APP):
Associated Press of Pakistan

Pick-up hits roadside bomb; four killed

PARACHINAR, June 3: Four people, two children among them, were killed and six others were injured by a blast in the Kurram tribal region on Tuesday.Sources said that a pick-up going from Bagan to Sadda hit an explosive device planted on road near the Mandori village. The pick-up was destroyed.The injured were taken to a hospital in Bagan in the Lower Kurram. Agency official Ihsanullah Khan, however, put the death toll at three and the number of injured at four.


DAWN
June 04, 2008
Wednesday
Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429

Seven killed in mine blast

PESHAWAR: Seven people, including two children, were killed on Tuesday when their van hit a mine in the areas of Mandara, Kurram Agency, officials said.The vehicle struck a landmine planted by unidentified militants on a road in the Kurram Agency, they said. "Seven people were killed and seven others seriously injured when a minivan hit the mine and exploded. The dead include two children," a local security official said on condition of anonymity. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The mountainous region is also plagued by feuds between various heavily armed Pashtun tribes and by battles between rival religious groups vying for supremacy with each other.


The Post
Wednesday ,
June 4 2008

‘US, Nato forces preparing to invade Pakistan’

The internal strife that has been continuing for the past several months along the borders of Pakistan would pave the way for external forces to enter the country, Allama Abbas Kumaili has said. He feared that NATO forces had already reached the borders of Afghanistan and that the doors to external intervention within Pakistan as well had been flung wide open.

Kumaili was addressing a press conference organised Friday at the Karachi Press Club (KPC). He was flanked by Allama Irfan Abidi, Allama Jaffer Raza, Moulana Rajab Ali Bungash, and others.

He expressed grave concern over the border areas of Kurram Agency, especially Parachinar and Dera Ismail Khan, and said that certain forces wanted to create ethnic conflicts in the areas. This, he said, was being done by unleashing a reign of terror where thousands of people being massacred in order to instigate Shia-Sunni clashes.

The government, Kumaili said, had shut its eyes, intentionally or unintentionally, to the situation while the integrity of the country was at stake. He feared a 1971-like situation which, he said, was a planned conspiracy. Some forces, under a contrived move, were fanning sectarian hatred and Shia-Sunni differences were being manipulated in the country.

US imperialist forces, Kumaili said, wanted to interfere in the internal affairs of Pakistan and were looking for excuses to invade it on the pretext of the “War on Terrorism” just as they had done in Iraq and Afghansitan.

Kumaili appreciated the measures taken by the elected government of Pakistan to form a Jirga and for trying to resolve the issues in Kurram Agency. Unfortunately, he said, the talks broke down and people from both sides were taken into custody, while pressure was mounted by the government to sign a draft document prepared by the establishment.

The News International
5/31/2008

Two Kurram men killed in Afghanistan

PARACHINAR: Unknown gunmen on Friday shot dead two local tribesmen in Shar-i-Nau area of neighbouring Afghanistan`s Paktia province.

Sources said the two men identified as Syed Muhammad Ibrahim and Gulab Hussain were on way to their hometown Parachinar when armed assailants intercepted their vehicle in Shar-i-Nau area of Paktia.

They disembarked them from their vehicle and opened indiscriminate fire, eyewitness who later reached Parachinar told officials of the political administration, adding both of them died on the spot.

Saturday May 31, 2008 (1141 PST

PakTribune.com

Jirga demands opening of Thall-Parachinar road, release of jirga members

PARACHINAR, June 1 (APP): A representative jirga of Tori tribe here Sunday demanded the authorities concerned to release the detained members of local jirga and opening of main Thall_ Parachianar road in order to mitigate the suffering of tribesmen of Kurram Agency.

The demands to this effect was made during a grand tribal jirga of Tori tribes held here at Malana area of Kurram Agency. Tribal elders Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha, Sabir Hussain, Noor Hussain, Lal Hussain and other leaders of the jirga.

They said that tribesmen are peace loving, patriotic people and have rendered great sacrifices during Pakistan Movement and for stability of Pakistan.

May 31, 2008

Associated Press of Pakistan

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Rain brings respite for NWFP residents

PESHAWAR: Light showers that lashed the provincial capital and the adjacent areas on Sunday afternoon brought a pleasant change in the weather as the maximum temperature came down to 31 degrees Centigrade with 74 per cent humidity in the air. The intermittent rain, which continued till evening, washed away dust and provided respite from air pollution besides scorching heat at least for the time being. The local Met Office had recorded four millimetres of rain with a forecast of more rain today. Reports of rain were also received from other parts of the province including Swat, Dir, Risalpur, Mardan, Nowshera, Kohat, Bannu, Karak, Lakki Marwat, Hangu, Kurram and Waziristan agencies. The dwellers enjoyed the cloudy weather early in the day as bazaars and shopping centres remained busy with crowds of customers while air-conditioners remained switched off due to the pleasant weather and cold winds. However, in Swat district rains caused causalities as eight people were killed in rain-related incidents besides damage to properties. The rain and hailstorm also damaged the standing crops in North Waziristan.

The News International
5/26/2008

Jirga members arrested on failure of talks

This practice is unusual in this part of the country but otherwise it is common in tribal areas where political authorities detain members of the rival parties after failure of talks over any issue.
Those arrested included 23 members each of Sunni and Shia sects of Hangu who had gathered in the provincial capital since May 9 to secure an agreement for peace in their district as well as the Kurrum Agency. Three other leaders were detained later.
It was learnt that the Peshawar police only shifted the 49 elders from a sprawling residence in the University Town to the Peshawar Central Jail. The Regional Coordination Officer of Kohat as well as the political agent of the Kurrum Agency had issued warrants for arrest of these Jirga members. The two parties had held several sessions of talks in Peshawar during the past 11 days but could not reach a consensus. Hangu District Nazim Haji Khan Afzal, who was also the head of the Hangu Amn Jirga, as well as RCO Kohat Mohammad Umar Afridi also attended most of the sessions of the Jirga.
"We had been making efforts for the past six months and had asked both the conflicting sides to submit their demands and reservations in black and white so that we could reach an agreement for a durable peace in Hangu and Kurrum. However, the two parties did not act responsibly," the head of the Jirga, Khan Afzal, told media persons here on Tuesday.
Kohat RCO and other elders, including Shah Hussain, Izzat Gul, Alauddin, Haji Fazal Akbar, Badshah Jan, Shah Sarwar, Shah Qaisar and others flanked him. The chief of the Hangu Amn Jirga made it clear that not the Jirga but the conflicting parties had failed in restoring peace to the Kurrum Agency and Hangu. The two parties had deposited Rs 20 million each in cash and Rs 40 million each as personal sureties with the Jirga.
"As the two parties were not acting responsibly, we have sent members from both sides to jail with the cooperation of the administration. They will remain behind the bars until they reach an agreement," remarked Khan Afzal.
Highlighting the achievements of the body, the Jirga head said it was because of their efforts that the children of both the sects appeared in examinations. He added that they were making serious efforts for peace in Kurrum as well as Hangu on a permanent basis.
Online adds: Sources of the peace Jirga disclosed that the government was interested that both parties sign a pre-planned peace agreement and upon their refusal it detained them. Sources from both the sides confirmed that the government had given them a draft but they vowed to draft the peace treaty after mutual negotiations and consultations.
End.

Wednesday May 21, 2008
paktribune.com

Hangu jirga prefers jail to peace

As explosions wounded people in Kohat, bombs went off in Bajaur, and a cleric was murdered in Khyber agency for “spying for the Americans”, the 50-man jirga from Hangu was put in jail in Peshawar for not reaching a peace deal to end the sectarian war in Kurram Agency. The jirga was put in the jug under Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) while its leaders accused the “elders” comprising the jirga of deliberately avoiding solution. Hundreds of innocent people have been done to dearth in the nearly two-year old war between the Shia and the Sunni.This is no surprise at all. Solutions were reached under FCR because of the system that prevailed under it. Above all, the authority of the state represented by the political agent could not be challenged. The jirga which contains members of the parties in conflict could not reach a decision because of the countervailing power of the Taliban. It is not the political agent but the Taliban and their central leader Baitullah Mehsud who call the shots. The Sunni-Shia conflict is hundreds of years old in the region, but Kurram became controversial — with its Shia majority in the headquarters, Parachinar — because it is located directly in front of the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. The Shia are surrounded by Sunni tribes and run the risk of being ethnically cleansed. *

Second Editorial
Daily Times
Thursday, May 22, 2008

Detention of Jirga members condemned

PARACHINAR: Elders of the Torikhel tribe on Wednesday condemned the detention of Jirga members and demanded of the authorities to stop harassing the Jirga members. Authorities on Tuesday detained 49 members of the Jirga following the failure of negotiations to secure a peace deal between two rival sects in the Hangu district and the Kurram Agency.Elders of the Torikhel tribe, Malik Ali Hussain, Haji Noor Muhammad and Haji Afzal Hussain said the incident had created doubts about the government's sincerity to restore peace in the region, as it was turning a blind eye to the ongoing clashes in the Pewar area of the agency. They demanded of the authorities to release the elders or the government would be responsible for any law and order problem in the agency.

The NEWS International
22/05/2008