March 2, 2006	Thursday	Safar 1, 1427

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LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), March 1: An uneasy calm prevailed in the Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency after the departure of a controversial cleric from the area on Tuesday.

The outspoken religious leader, Mufti Munir Shakir, was forced to leave Bara after bloody clashes between rival religious groups claimed lives of at least five tribesmen Thursday.

While the Mufti left Bara on Tuesday night, his pre-recorded cassettes were broadcast on his FM radio station which was again made operational after two days of closure. It was through one of his recorded sermons on the radio station that he managed to gather thousands of his supporters at Nala Malikdinkhel on Wednesday.

Supporters of Mufti Shakir did not allow local journalists to cover their meeting for their alleged negative coverage of their leader’s activities.

However, it was learnt that the gathering through a resolution demanded of the Khyber Agency political administration to relocate Mufti Munir Shakir in Bara before March 5 and warned staging a protest at the Governor’s House in Peshawar if their demand was not met.

The tussle between the two religious leaders have seriously affected business in Bara as all shops and foreign goods godowns were closed on Wednesday in anticipation of an armed gathering in Nala-Malikdinkhel. The common people faced a lot of difficulties as local transport remained off the roads on Wednesday.

The local traders took serious notice of the Bara Peace Committee’s decision of appointing Sedak Zakhkhel as their new commander.

Sedak Zakhakhel had escaped from Bara prison on February 16 last year and has since been absconding. He was wanted by the Khyber Agency administration and the Peshawar police in a number of cases of kidnapping and road robbery.

Many tribesmen in Bara accused local authorities for their failure to lay a hand on Sedak Zakhakhel who was patrolling the Bara Road since Friday.

In the meantime, the Bara Peace Committee started its own FM station in Arjali Nadi on Friday.

A number of Bara elders have demanded of the administration that since both Mufti Munir Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman had been expelled from Bara, it was time to close down all illegal FM stations in the area as according to them the FM stations were the main source of spreading hatred among people.

Meanwhile, members of the all-Fata jirga, constituted by the provincial governor to resolve the Bara problem, met the secretary, Fata, Mohammad Shahzad Arbab, at the Governor’s Fata Secretariat on Wednesday.

The members apprised him of the jirga’s efforts for the expulsion of Mufti Munir Shakir from Bara and restoration of peace and normalcy in the area.

Mr Arbab stressed that their efforts must continue for permanent peace in the area and removal of misunderstandings between tribesmen.

RECOVERED: The Landi Kotal political administration with the collaboration of a tribal jirga helped in recovering the contractor of an army canteen from Tawda Maina in the remote Tirah valley.

Armed tribesmen kidnapped Umar Daraz Khattak for ransom while he was returning to Peshawar from the Jarhbi army camp.

A jirga, constituted by the authorities, held talks with the abductors and managed to secure the release of Umar Daraz without any ransom.