October 24, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba'an 6, 1422

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DARRA ADAMKHEL, Oct 23: The tribesmen of Darra Adamkhel, Khyber Agency, here on Tuesday blocked the Indus Highway near Feroz Khan village for two hours in protest against the kidnapping of three villagers.

Deputy director agriculture, Peshawar, Fazal Rabbi, Malik Nazar Gul and Abdul Malik, a school teacher, were kidnapped on Sunday night by some people of Tandiwal, Darra Adamkhel, and demanded Rs225,000 in ransom for their release.

But the sub-clans of five villages of Darra, including Zarghunkhel, Akhorwal, Torchappar, Bostikhel and Sheraki, refused to pay the ransom amount and blocked the main road to force the administration to recover the three tribesmen.

Officials of the political administration rushed to the site of the road blockade to persuade the people to clear the road for the traffic as a large of number of vehicles had lined up on both sides of the blockade.

But the tribal people said that the road would remain blocked till the kidnapped men were not recovered.

The assistant political agent of Frontier region, Kohat, and the political tehsildar with elders of the area convened a Jirga and persuaded the protesters to lift the road blockade after two hours.

The administration issued notices for the arrest of the alleged kidnappers including Rizwan, Saleem, Rahim, Ishaq, Jan Bahadar, Zahir Shah, Nadir and Siraj.

The political administration of the agency had initiated a clean-up operation against one of the kidnappers, Rizwan, in December 1989, who served a seven-year term in jail, but showed no improvement. His house had also been demolished in the operation.

A Jirga would be held on Oct 29 under the supervision of the FR administration to decide the case.