Conflicts & War

Rival tribes in Pakistan agree 1-year truce after deadly clashes

Islamabad, Jul 14 (EFE).- Rival tribes in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province struck a one-year ceasefire after deadly clashes left at least 10 dead and 30 others injured, an official said on Friday.

Earlier this week, the KP government formed a 30-member Jirga — a local council under the Pashtun social code — to host peace talks between the warring tribes in response to a bout of violence in the Kurram district linked to land ownership disputes.

“After extensive negotiations, the tribes have reached a ceasefire for a year,” Hafeez Ullah, Assistant Commissioner of Upper Kurram, who was also a member of the Jirga, told EFE on Friday.

The official said that following the clashes that had lasted at least seven days, all fronts had been cleared and the Pakistan Army and Police had now taken over.

“In all the five places where the clashes between the parties were going on, the clashes have stopped after the ceasefire,” Ullah said.

According to the truce, security forces will be deployed to bunkers to ensure compliance with the ceasefire.

On Wednesday the army was deployed to the area amid a spike in ethnic violence and clashes which broke out when members of a tribe tried to build a structure on disputed land and found resistance from its rival tribe.

Footage of gunfire was shared on social media with locals claiming the incident had paralyzed routine life in the area because of road closures.

Some residents also complained that the supply of food and provisions to the area was also disrupted as a result of the violence.

The KP Home and Tribal Affairs Department on Wednesday announced that a jirga had gone to Kurram to resolve the dispute.

“There are eight different land disputes going on in central, lower and upper areas of Kurram district, most of which date back to pre-independence time (before 1947),” the department said in a statement.

In early May, eight people were gunned down in two separate incidents in the Parachinar area, the capital of the Kurram district.

One teacher was killed while driving his car, and seven others, including four other teachers, were shot dead at the staffroom of Government High School Tari Manga by unknown gunmen allegedly in retaliation over land disputes.EFE

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