December 13, 2005	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 10, 1426

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LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Dec 12: Tension in the Bara area continued on the tense on third day as hundreds of armed supporters of Mufti Munir Shakir issued a stern warning to his opponent Pir Saifur Rehman to leave Bara immediately or face forcible eviction.

The two religious factions have been at logger-heads for the past month over the observance some religious rituals. Their differences intensified when both started using abusive language against each other over FM radio stations, installed in their respective areas. Sources in Bara told Dawn that armed supporters of Pir Saifur Rehman have taken positions in Mandai Kas area to thwart any possible aggression from their rival faction.

In a bid to avert a bloody clash between the two groups, the Bara political administration has reportedly convened a jirga of Malikdinkhel and Sipah elders on Monday to cool tempers down. Ten elders each of the two tribes have been invited to Bara tehsil office on Monday.

An official of the political administration conceded that the Khyber Agency political administration had failed to close down all illegal FM radio stations installed in the Bara area.

The majority of the Bara residents were also not happy with the worsening of the situation in Malikdinkhel and Sipah area and have reportedly urged the administration to expel both the Mufti and the Pir from Bara as they were not the actual residents of the area.

Many of the Bara residents believe that the wrangling between the two religious figures would tarnish their image. The tribesmen were paying a heavy price for allegedly providing protection to militants in Waziristan and “we do not want to face the same consequences in Bara”, said Nasarullah, a Shalobar resident.

It was also learnt on good authority that Haji Namdar, head of yet another religious faction and a former foe of Mufti Munir Shakir have announced his full support to the Mufti and have reportedly sent dozens of his armed supporters to Malikdinkhel area.

An armed clash between Namdar and the Pir left at least 20 people dead and dozens of houses demolished in July 2004. The two groups had differences over the distribution of illegal toll tax collected from vehicles bringing in smuggled goods from Afghanistan into the tribal areas.

Later, Haji Namdar expelled Mufti Munir Shakir from Qambarkhel when the Mufti termed the collection of toll tax as un-Islamic.

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