KOHAT: The tribesmen of Darra Adamkhel and Khyber Agency ceased fire on the intervention of the army, local administration officials and elders on Monday.

The firing has left five tribesmen seriously injured and caused extensive damage to Pesco installations.

Members of Akhorwal tribe of Darra Adamkhel tribal subdivision of Kohat and Akakhel tribe of Bara tehsil of Khyber began exchanging heavy fire on Sunday evening over the ownership of a mountain, which continued till Monday evening.

A jirga held in Darra and attended by the army and local administration officials and elders of the warring tribes reached an agreement on ceasefire. It warned that the violators of the agreement would be fined Rs50 million.

The firing resulted in snapping of high tension lines affecting 10 grid stations between Peshawar and Kohat, officials said.

There were reports of serious injuries to members of the Akhorwal tribe who were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Azam Khan, a Darra administration official, said.

He said assistant commissioner, Darra, Haider Hussain, had also arrived at the scene on Monday morning, but he along with army officials could not do anything as the firing did not stop.

Pesco chief executive officer, Kohat, Yousuf Khan said electricity supply was disconnected from Sheikh Muhammadi grid station of Peshawar midnight on Sunday.

He said during the night Pesco workers managed to restore some lines but the system was overloaded, forcing load management to save the system at peak hours.

BODY RECOVERED: The police recovered the body of a young man in Jungle Khel area on Monday and shifted it to hospital for postmortem.

The locals spotted the body of Ismail in Chakar Mela village and informed the police.

The officials said the victim was returning home from work for sehri in the wee hours of Monday when he was targeted.

The Jungle Khel police arrested the accused namely Arshad Jan during a raid, and registered a case against him.

Also on Monday, the Kohat police arrested a woman smuggler with ice and hashish during checking of vehicles on the Indus Highway.

SHO Saddar Afzal said the police were checking vehicles coming from Peshawar at the friendship tunnel checkpost, when during search of a Karak-bound coach they recovered one kilogramme ice and one kilogramme hashish from a woman, Nazia Khattak.

Mr Afzal said the woman was taking the drugs to southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2021