LANDI KOTAL: A jirga of Sipah tribe of Bara on Thursday handed over 15 wanted tribesmen to political administration under the policy of the government to clear the area of militants and restore lasting peace there.

A similar number of wanted men out of the total 102 had surrendered to the administration few days ago. So far, 30 wanted men have surrendered to the administration.

The Khasadar Force took the surrendered men into their custody and shifted them to an unspecified location for interrogation. The jirga was held at Khyber House.

The names of Mangal Bagh, chief of proscribed Lashkar-i-Islam (LI), and some of his close associates belonging to Sipah tribe were also included in the list of wanted men.

Makes it clear to the officials that it can’t lay a hand on ‘most wanted men’

Some participants of the jirga told Dawn on condition of anonymity that almost all the 15 persons, who offered voluntary arrest, were innocent and had no association with either LI or any other militant group.

They said that the administration assured them of ‘fair treatment’ of the arrested men during the interrogation and said that they would be set free if charges against them were not proved.

The Sipah elders said that they made it clear to the officials of political administration that they were unable to lay a hand on ‘most wanted’ men of LI as security forces and local administration too had failed to track them down during the last five and half years of continuous military operation in Bara.

The political administration had earlier warned the Sipah elders that they would not be allowed to return to their homes as part of the return plan and all their perks and privileges would remain suspended if they failed to hand them over all the wanted men, belong to their tribe.

The political administration had also made the recognition of Sipah Sareshtha (reconciliatory body) conditional to surrender of the wanted men.

INJURED: Four passengers including two women and a boy were injured when a passenger van fill into a deep ditch in Mukhtarkhel area of Lnadi Kotal on Thursday.

Khasadar officials said that a van was carrying Afghan passengers from Peshawar to Torkham border when it fell into the ditch. As a result, Amanullah, his wife, and his three-year-old son Masihullah and wife of Humayun were injured.

The injured persons were rushed to agency headquarters hospital in Landi Kotal.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2015

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