February 27, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 9, 1428

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LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Feb 26: Armed clashes between two rival religious groups in Tirah on Sunday claimed another three lives while a woman sustained injuries, some sources said.

The sources said that all the slain men belonged to Ansaar-ul-Islam. A woman got caught up in the incident and was critically injured, they added.

The renewed fighting took place only a day after NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai had hinted at use of force to resolve the two-year-old conflict.

The government had earlier constituted a 35-member jirga to restore peace in Tirah. But the jirga members abandoned their peace efforts due to non-cooperation from the two warring groups.

Meanwhile, a shopkeeper was injured when there was an explosion in a shop in Bara on Monday. Officials said a shopkeeper, Rahat, was handling some explosive material when the explosion occurred. Rahat was later shifted to the hospital, with one of his legs badly injured.

JOURNALIST’S KIDNAPPING: The Bara administration has refused to release at least 80 Shalobar tribesmen who were arrested under the Collective Territorial Responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation on charges of involvement in the kidnapping of a journalist, Sohail Qalandar, and his businessman friend.

The two were recovered on Feb 22 from the Shinkoo area of Bara tehsil. On Monday a jirga of the Shalobar tribe met the authorities and requested for the release of the arrested men.

According to official sources, the request was turned down because the main accused of the case were still at large. Dozens of shops belonging to Shalobar tribesmen have, meanwhile, been sealed.