HANGU, Feb 11: A ceasefire was brokered in the troubled Hangu on Saturday after three days of intense clashes between the two Muslim sects, officials said.
The authorities had clamped curfew on the region to avoid any untoward incident.
Kohat Deputy Inspector-General Abdul Majeed Marwat said that a peace agreement had been reached between the elders of the two sects on Friday evening.
“Violators of the agreement will have to pay a fine of Rs20 million,” Mr Marwat said, while giving details of the accord.
After the truce, army and paramilitary troops took the control of the city and started removing combatants from hilltops and others key locations.
The death toll climbed to 41, while 100 people were wounded in the three-day long clashes triggered by a suicide bomber who attacked the Muharram procession on Thursday.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal general-secretary Senator Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan and Allama Ramzan Touqeer, adviser to the NWFP chief minister, reached the area to broker the deal.
Mr Marwat said that a 24-member committee had been constituted to prepare a peace plan for the city and it would hold a meeting at the office of the district coordination officer on Sunday.
He said that government would put the recommendations of the committee into practice in letter and spirit.
Despite hectic efforts of the religious elders and the civil authorities, residents said, clashes continued in the suburbs of the city the whole night and rival groups exchanged heavy fire and rockets on Friday night, resulting in the deaths of three more persons and injuries to 10 others. Fresh casualties were reported from the Pass Kalay.
Sources said that troops fired artillery rounds to force combatants to abandon their positions in the city surroundings.
In the early morning, Shia and Sunni Ulema appealed to their followers on loudspeakers to stop fighting and abandon their positions.
The sources said that reinforcement of troops was underway.
General Officer Commanding, Kohat, Maj-Gen Gul Mohammad had been camping at the headquarters of the Orakzai Agency, near Hangu, to monitor the situation.
Army and paramilitary troops had started joint patrolling in bazaars and streets of Hangu. Hundreds of shops were gutted after mourners set them on fire.
Meanwhile, former Senator Jawad Hadi has urged the government to pay compensation for the loss of life and property in the troubled district.
Speaking at press conference held in Peshawar on Saturday, he said: “We don’t attribute this incident to sectarianism or act of any sect, but call it a pure terrorism and an act of anti-state and anti-Islamic forces.”
