PESHAWAR, Feb 19: Local leaders of the political parties of Bara, Khyber Agency, have asked the government to release 26 members of a jirga who were arrested by the political administration.

Addressing a press conference here at the Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, the Awami National Party (ANP) Bara division president, Rasool Jan Afridi, said that the administration in Bara, Khyber Agency, had arrested 26 innocent people whose only crime was that they had refused to sell off their land at throwaway rates to the political administration.

The land was wanted by industrialists to install factories there, he said, adding that the jirga visited the office of the assistant political agent in their bid to demand an appropriate rate for their land.

He alleged that all the jirga members were arrested by the authorities instead of trying to resolve the issue. He said that the assistant political agent was enforcing his illegal decision on the tribal people of the area to sell off their land at the cheap rate of Rs50,000 per acre.

Mr Afridi said that we were ready to sell our lands on the market rate but the assistant political agent violated the tribal tradition and had the jirga's members arrested. He demanded that since the assistant political agent had violated the law of the land he should be held on trial and justice be provided to all innocent people.

He also demanded that another assistant political agent be nominated in the area because the one at present did not belong to the tribal areas, which was why he was creating a law and order situation in the agency. He warned that after this shameful act of the assistant political agent the tribesmen would never tender their lands to the industries.

He said that if anyone tried to seize their lands he would be dealt with an iron hand and the government alone would be held responsible if any untoward situation took place regarding it. The ANP Bara division president was flanked by a local PPP president of Bara, Adam Khan, ANP workers and tribesmen of the area.