|
|
|
| 31 March 2004 | Wednesday | 09 Safar 1425 |
Tribe gets 10 days to hand over suspects: Killing of naib tehsildars
PESHAWAR, March 30: An inter-tribal jirga on Tuesday gave 10 days to the Zalikhel tribe in the South Waziristan tribal region to produce people suspected of involvement in the cold-blooded murder of two naib tehsildars.
The deadline was given to the tribe after civil and military officials attended the funeral of the two naib tehsildars at Camp Colony in the agency's headquarters, Wana.
"We all mourn the death of our two officers who went down in the line of duty. They were civilian non-combatants killed in cold blood. No religion condones such dastardly acts. This is against Islam and Pukhtunwali," South Waziristan administrator Muhammad Azam Khan said. Pukhtunwali is a code of customs and honour that governs the lives of Pukhtuns.
The bodies of naib tehsildars Mateeullah Burki and Amir Nawaz Marwat found on Monday were wrapped in the national flag and later taken to their villages for burial.
Official sources said the two had been shot dead from close range with their hands tied behind their back. Autopsies revealed that both had bullet wounds in the hand, face and chest.
According to the autopsy report, Marwat was killed on the 20th or 21st and Burki two days later, on the 23rd or 24th of March. "The bodies were bullet ridden and badly mutilated," said one source who had seen the bodies. One of them appeared to have been tortured before being killed, the report said.
Both had been held hostages along with 12 soldiers of the paramilitary Frontier Corps during an operation against foreign militants and their tribal protectors in Kaloosha on March 16.
Militants freed 11 paramilitary soldiers on Sunday as a result of what an official described as tribal dynamics. "The freed militiamen were from the predominantly Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan. The militants who come from the second largest Ahmadzai Wazirs knew the killing could spark an inter-tribal war, something they could not afford," said the official.
Officials said that the naib tehsildars had found themselves trapped and taken refuge in a mosque in Kaloosha but were later caught by militants and held hostage. Their bodies were found in a deep well in Ziar Ghuzy in the Karmazkhel-Zalikhel area, about 20km to the southwest of Wana.
Muhammad Azam Khan said he held the Zalikhel tribe wholly and squarely responsible for the murders. "The men who carried out the act and the area where it took place belong to the Zalikhels. And I am going to hold them responsible for it," he said on phone from Wana.
Mr Azam Khan said he intended to make use of the collective responsibility clause of the 1901 Frontier Crimes Regulation to punish the Zalikhel tribe if they failed to surrender five militants wanted by the authorities.
The punishment could entail demolition of their commercial property in Wana, he said and added that he wanted the tribe to hand over Sharif, his brother Noor Islam, Nek Muhammad, Maulavi Abbas and Maulavi Abdul Aziz - all five have been charged with harbouring and supporting foreign militants.
"They had admitted to holding the naib tehsildars as hostage and had agreed to let them go before an inter-tribal jirga. They had told the jirga that the two men were being held at a distant location and their release could take a day," the administrator said.
Malik Guli Shah, a member of the inter-tribal jirga who had gone to Wana to talk to the Zalikhel tribe, said that Sharif and Nek Muhammad had told them during a meeting last week that they were unaware about the two naib tehsildars but had promised to look for them.
He said the inter-tribal jirga summoned the Zalikhel elders again on Tuesday and gave them 10 days to catch and hand over the main suspects. "The Zalikhels have promised to raise a lashkar (tribal volunteer force) to look for the suspects and turn them over to the authorities," he said on phone from Wana.
The jirga has also asked the tribe to either hand over or evict foreign militants from their soil. "We are going to come again after 10 days and if the Zalikhels fail, we, the jirga of all tribes, would impose sanctions and penalty on the tribe," Guli Shah said.
|
|
|
|