April 14, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1429

SUKKUR, April 13: A jirga imposed huge fines on Mahar and Jatoi tribes for the killing of 65 people, in an attempt to end more than two decades of bloody dispute between the two tribes.

It is the seventh jirga in 23 years since the two sides went to war over a plot of land in 1985. The six jirgas held in 1990, 1991, 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2005 failed after one or the other tribe refused to accept their decisions.

The jirga held at the Circuit House began proceedings on Saturday and gave its verdict on Sunday imposing a total of Rs26.6 million fine on the two sides for killing 65 people since 2005.

The dispute has so far claimed more than 300 lives and left hundreds of people injured since in 1985.

The jirga found Mahar tribesmen guilty of killing 35 Jatois and the Jatois guilty of killing 30 Mahars since 2005, after hearing statements of affected parties. A Rs400,000 fine had been imposed for the murder of a man and Rs800,000 for the killing of a woman. A Rs14 million fine was imposed on the Mahars and Rs12.6 million on the Jatois.

Karim Dino Budani read out the verdict after which the elders and tribesmen of the two tribes embraced each other and exchanged felicitations over the end of bloody war.

Former provincial minister Manzoor Panhwar presided over the jirga in which Sardar Ali Gohar Khan Mahar, Ghous Bux Khan Mahar and Ali Nawaz alias Raja Mahar represented the Mahars and Sardar Khadim Hussain Jatoi, Dr. Ibrahim Jatoi and Abid Hussain Jatoi represented the Jatois.

The bloody war had rendered the katcha areas of Sukkur, Shikarpur and Ghotki districts no-go-areas for the people belonging to the two tribes.