WANA: The Ahmadzai Wazir tribe has again convened a jirga to raise an armed Lashkar on Saturday (today) to go ahead with an earlier decision to demolish the house of Awami National Party (ANP) leader Ayaz Wazir.

The tribal jirga held a session at Kiri Kot in South Waziristan district on Friday and decided that 1,200-strong Lashkar would proceed to the house of Mr Wazir and raze it.

Before marching on the house of Mr Wazir, tribal elders would meet to take final decisions about the Lashkar’s raid. The Lashkar will be accompanied by drum beaters.

Presently, tension is running high in the area.

The ANP has already announced that it will lodge an FIR against the elders of Ahmadzai Wazir tribe for instigating people against the party leader and raising a Lashkar to demolish his house.

Earlier, local ulema and Mr Wazir’s clan had presented four rams to the jirga as repentance (Nanawatay) but the jirga turned down the offer.

Speaking at Friday’s jirga, tribal elder Malik Jameel said that Mr Wazir had spoken at a jirga with the district administration on Thursday without taking the tribal elders into confidence, which had resulted in commotion and the jirga was marred by hooliganism.

Later, he said, the tribal elders had taken a collective decision to punish Mr Wazir for foiling the jirga which was held to restore peace in the area. He said that the jirga elders had decided that the house of Mr Wazir would be demolished. Beside, the jirga had also slapped a fine of Rs1 million on Mr Wazir.

On the other hand, the district administration and the police are making efforts to restrict the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe from implementing the jirga decision to demolish Mr Wazir’s house.

The district police officer has made it clear to the Ahmadzai Wazirs that, if implemented, the jirga decision would be considered as taking the law into their hands.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2020