19 December 2004	Sunday	06 Ziqa'ad 1425

PESHAWAR, Dec 18: The elders of Khalil tribe have demanded that the Afridis seal an accord with them to control increasing cases of kidnapping for ransom in areas adjacent to Khyber Agency and inhabited by the Khalil tribe.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, they said their areas had become major kidnapping zone because of their being in close vicinity of the Khyber Agency.

Chief of the Khalil tribe, Arbab Dost Mohammad Khan said that some days back a schoolteacher, Jafar, who belonged to their tribe, was kidnapped by the Afridi tribesmen who could not be recovered as yet despite hectic efforts by political administration of the agency.

He asked the elders of all the Afridi tribes to sit together with them and work out an agreement for controlling the menace of kidnapping for ransom in the presence of political administration.

He demanded immediate recovery of the schoolteacher or his tribe would block all the routes leading to Bara, Khyber Agency.

"The government should also cooperate in the recovery of our kidnapped people and finalizing of the agreement," he said.

Mr Arbab added that all the lands owned by his tribesmen were precious and the government had acquired them at throwaway prices and set up townships on them "without paying us our due".

"Now the government intends to set up a mental hospital in Hayathabad for which 3,200 acre of land of our people has been acquired," he said.

"We had appealed to the government that since a hospital could be established on two or three acres and since official land was in abundance in the Phase-VIII, it should better build the hospital there instead of acquiring our land, but that appeal went unheeded," he regretted.

He rejected the government plan of airport expansion, saying the project would cause demolition of four or five villages and many other localities of tribesmen.

He advised the government to shift the airport to some area out of the city.

Senior vice-president of the Jirga, Jamroz Khan, vice-president, Almas Khan, Ihsanullah, Zain Khalil, Arifullah Khan and a large number of people of the tribe were present during the press conference.