LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), April 26: Activists of a religious organisation on Tuesday torched the house of a leader of their rival group in the remote Tirah valley of Khyber Agency.

The 70-year-old fort-like residence of Haji Sultan Mohammad situated in the Spin Drand locality of Tirah was reduced to ashes by the activists of the Lashkar-i-Islami, an armed wing of Mufti Munir Shakir supporters. Sultan Mohammad is considered as the right-hand man of Pir Saifur Rehman. Inmates were able to vacate the house before it was set ablaze.

The self-proclaimed Amir of the Lashkar-i-Islam, Haji Mangal Bagh, on Monday had issued a warning to Sultan Mohammad on his FM station installed in the Gogrina village in Bazaar sub-tehsil of Landi Kotal to either surrender to the Lashkar or face punishment.

Sultan Mohammad said his request to the political administration for security after the warning had fallen on deaf ears.

He said he had very little time to shift his belongings from his house, which he confirmed was completely destroyed.

Mangal Bagh and his supporters had shifted to Gogrina after their FM radio station in Nala-Malikdin Khel was destroyed by a mortar shell and their centre was occupied by the Khasadar force and Mehsood scouts on March 30.

The Lashkar-i-Islami recently installed a new FM radio station in Gogrina despite opposition by local elders and the Landi Kotal political administration.