October 03, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 20, 1428

KOHAT, Oct 2: The district police chief has allowed watchmen to shoot at sight the Taliban trying to “take the law into their hands” ostensibly to “eliminate sin and vice”.

The police official issued the order after the Taliban ransacked a shrine in the Sherkot area and threatened the people to remove the tower of a mobile phone company.

After the incident, area elders called on the DPO on Tuesday and informed him of the situation. The DPO allowed them to shoot such people if they take law into their hands again.

The local Taliban are freely roaming the city and adjoining areas on motorcycles and are reported to have also warned the people in Sherkot, Alizai and Ustarzai to remove TV cables.

Eyewitnesses said the Taliban ransacked the shrine and then went to a house where a mobile company’s tower was installed. They asked the residents to remove the tower which, according to them, was a source of evil and sin. Unknown armed men partially damaged a shrine on Parachinar road in the Ambar Banda village on Monday night.

The situation in the Orakzai Agency and Hangu has become tense and the Taliban and locals have closed roads passing through their respective areas for each other. Zera-Kalaya and its parallel road have turned into a no-go area.

This has been done to put economic pressure on each other. Many hotels, shops and picnic spots in the area have been closed after clashes over the ownership of a shrine in Kalaya erupted last year.

Even senior officials use public transport while travelling between Hangu and Kalaya, the headquarters of Orakzai Agency, to avoid being the target of the local Taliban.