June 22, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1427

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PESHAWAR, June 21: Two tribes in Kurram Agency, who have been engaged in gunbattles over distribution of irrigation water for several days reached an agreement on Wednesday to observe a ceasefire for 70 days.

According to officials, the death toll in clashes reached 16 after two injured people died in the agency’s headquarters hospital in Parachinar on Wednesday.

They said that a tribal jirga had brokered the peace truce between Malikhel and Bangash tribes. The jirga decided that anyone violating the accord would be fined Rs5 million.

Meanwhile, Fata Additional Secretary (security) Sikander Qayyum has said that the situation was under control and security forces had been deployed in the area.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said that efforts were under way to resolve the dispute between the two tribes.

Mr Qayyum said that the government would not allow any group or tribe to take arbitrary actions in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

On the situation in the Orakzai Agency, he said that the administration had arrested six people in the case relating to murder of two women teachers and two children. He denied reports about imposition of a curfew in Bara area, saying that shops had been sealed under the FCR.