PESHAWAR: An armed clash took place between Isakhel tribe and family of former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly deputy speaker Mehmood Jan in Regi area here on Friday, the police said.

The firing continued for hours, but the police and the district administration officials failed to reach the spot to get the rivals to end the fire.

Regi police station officials said firing between the two groups started on Friday morning over a longstanding property dispute. They said clashes had also occurred between the rivals in the past.

“The police were trying their best to stop the firing,” an official said.

Former Peshawar commissioner Riaz Mehsood had mediated a truce and made the two sides to accept the verdict of religious scholars from the famous Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak. But it didn’t last long.

On February 20, Mehmood Jan and two others were charged with a murder in a case registered with the Regi police station. Officials said an exchange of fire had taken place between the two groups over a property dispute, which left one person dead.

They said Murad Ali, a brother of the deceased, Mohammad Ali, 40, had got registered a case with the police, nominating the former deputy speaker and two others for the killing.

On December 23, shots were fired near a gathering Mehmood Jan was attending in the provincial capital’s Shagai area. However, he had remained unhurt.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2023