January 09, 2007	Tuesday	Zilhaj 18, 1427

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LANDI KOTAL, Jan 8: Senator Hamidullah Jan Afridi led a 13-member jirga to Gogrina on Monday to hold talks with Lashkar-i-Islam aimed at brokering a ceasefire between rival groups in Tirah valley. The jirga mostly comprised Bara elders.

The senator had to abandon talks midway before Eidul Azha when he left for Makkah to perform Haj.

During his absence, the political administration of Khyber Agency constituted another jirga comprising elders and notables from all seven tribal agencies and representatives of Afridi sub-tribes.

The government-sponsored jirga tried to contact Lashkar leaders, however, its self-proclaimed amir, Mangal Bagh, refused to meet the tribal leaders, said sources.

Talks scheduled to be held at the Khyber House in Peshawar on Monday also failed to make any headway as the Lashkar men refused to talk to the government-sponsored jirga. Representatives of the other group, Ansar-ul-Islam, were present there.

Meanwhile, before his departure to Gogrina, Senator Hamidullah told Dawn that he was confident of brokering a ceasefire in a few days.

He alleged that the official jirga was constituted by the Khyber Agency political administration to save their skins after their failure to control the situation in Tirah.

DOCTORS’ STRIKE: Doctors at the Agency Headquarters Hospital on Monday observed a two-hour token strike to protest against prolonged loadshedding.

The protest caused a lot of inconvenience to patients and their attendants.

Medical Superintendent Dr Zar Alam said that their work was seriously affected by the unscheduled loadshedding. He said that he and his colleagues had lodged a number of complaints with Landi Kotal grid officials and local political administration.

He said they had a large quantity of Hepatitis-C vaccines which needed to be refrigerated. If uninterrupted power supply was not ensured, the vaccines would be rendered useless, he pointed out.

He complained that the hospital laboratory, X-ray machine, operation theatre and labour room were the worst affected by frequent outages.

The hospital staff resumed their duties after an assurance by the local administration. However, Dr Zar Alam said that they would boycott indefinitely if continuous power supply was not ensured.