November 27, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 16, 1428

MANSEHRA, Nov 26: A jirga of all the tribes of Kala Dhaka has assured the government that the militants coming from Shangla and Swat will not be allowed to enter the area.

The jirga decided that the house of any tribesman providing shelter to the militants would be set on fire and he would be fined Rs1 million.

“We know that these militants are against the existence of the country and following their own agenda. We will not only restrict their way to Kala Dhaka but all the tribes will fight against them if the need arises,” said a participant of the jirga.

Sources said the grand jirga of all the seven tribes of Kala Dhaka, a strip of Mansehra district bordering Swat, Shangla, Kohistan and Battagram, was held at Darband in Oghi tehsil. The Mansehra district coordinator officer and the administrator of Kala Dhaka were also present.

DCO Munir Azam said an operation was under way in Shangla and Swat and the government feared that the militants would infiltrate the area, which would affect the law and order situation in the district.

He told tribesmen that the government had made deployment and taken measures to restrict the entry of the militants of Shangla into Kala Dhaka and Mansehra but “it is your responsibility not only to restrict them but to expel them from your territory.”

The elders, including Haji Bahader, Sultan Hussein Zai, Raziq Hassein Zai and Toti Khan, assured the DCO that they had never provided shelter to the any militant and would not do so in the future as they were bound by their traditions.

If the need arose, all the tribes of the area would fight the militants, they said.

The jirga unanimously decided that any person or tribe sheltering the militants would be punished and expelled from the area.

Last week, Taliban had sent a threatening letter to the principal of the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Oghi.