LAKKI MARWAT: Two rival groups of Tajazai union council on Friday resolved their blood feud and pledged to promote peace and launch collective efforts for development of the locality.

The old enmity between Zafran and Sadullah groups had claimed a life. The feud was also a constant threat to the peaceful environment of Tajazai, thus forcing the members of Islahi committee to intervene.

The efforts by the committee president Maulana Hafiz Salahuddin and its members bore fruit and both groups agreed to bury the hatchet. The committee arranged a gathering locally called ‘nanawatay’ in Tajazai where elders and youths of both families embraced each other in the presence of a large number of people.

The death of Haji Mirwali, a Class-IV employee of education department who died due to alleged negligence of doctors at the government city hospital, has forced the elders to form a body to keep a check on government run institutions and improve their service delivery.

The body which was named as ‘Civil Society Lakki Marwat’ was constituted at a meeting on Friday chaired by MPA Munawar Khan’s brother Engineer Haji Ameer Nawaz Khan. Local journalists, lawyers and former representatives of local government were also in attendance.

The participants discussed problems faced by inhabitants of the urban locality in health, education and other sectors. They also flayed the performance of municipal committee and said that citizens lacked civic amenities.

“Doctors prefer their private clinics instead of turning to duty at government health facilities,” said a participant.

“There is dire need to keep a check on government departments especially hospitals, schools and civic bodies,” said another participant.

SMUGGLING BID FOILED: Police foiled a weapons’ smuggling bid and seized a big cache of arms and ammunition from a car near Naurang town on Friday.

An official said the action was taken on information about smuggling of weapons to Punjab. He said that a police party of Shaheed Asmatullah Khan Khattak police station stopped a suspected car on highway near Naurang and recovered illegal weapons from its hidden cavities.

The official added that the seized arms and ammunition included two Kalashnikovs, a shotgun, a rifle, five magazines and 18,000 bullets.

Police arrested the driver, Inamullah, and impounded the car.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2014