LANDI KOTAL: The Khyber Agency political administration on Monday set a three-day deadline to the Sipah tribe of Bara to surrender all its wanted members and deposit the fine of Rs120 million.

The members of Sipah jirga, which met Political Agent Shahab Ali Shah at Khyber House, told Dawn that they were asked to surrender all the wanted men, whose list had already been furnished to the jirga by the political administration about a month ago.

“The tone of political agent this time was very aggressive. He warned the jirga to be ready for consequences if it failed to fulfil the official demands,” a Sipah elder told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

The political agent told the jirga that action would be taken against Sipah elders. The action would include suspension of all official perks and privileges along with their arrest under the Collective Territorial Responsibility clause of Frontier Crimes Regulations.

The jirga was reminded that some of the Sipah elders had assured both the political administration and security officials prior to the start of military operation in October last year that security forces would not be attacked in their area.

The administration imposed a fine of Rs120 million collectively on Sipah tribesmen after a deadly attack on security force soon after the start of military operation in Bara in which a number of soldiers were killed and some of their vehicles were destroyed.

The members of Sipah jirga said that they had already handed over 20 wanted men of their tribe out of the total 118 to the administration some three weeks ago and many more were willing to surrender as they believed that they were innocent.

“The administration had assured us that the surrendered men would be interrogated promptly and they would be set free if found innocent,” the elders said. They added that according to their information interrogation of only five out of the 20 surrendered men were completed while the rest were still waiting to be questioned by the investigating teams.

The slow process of investigation, they argued, had also discouraged the wanted men to hand over themselves to the administration voluntarily.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play