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KHAAR, July 18: Several Jamaat-i-Islami workers were arrested on Sunday after they clashed with security forces at the Tor Ghundi checkpost on the border between the Lower Dir district and the Bajaur Agency when officials stopped MMA's acting president Qazi Hussain Ahmad from entering the agency.
The political administration had adopted elaborate measures to stop the JI amir from addressing a public meeting convened to protest against the military operation in the South Waziristan Agency.
The JI chief, along with other party workers, were stopped by the levies personnel as they were going from Dir to Khaar. The JI workers started arguing with the Bajaur levies and tried to forcibly enter the tribal region which led to a clash in which one of the JI workers was injured.
Later, authorities detained the party's local workers on charges of creating a law and order situation in the agency. The political administration had taken strict security measures and had deployed Khasadar force on routes leading to the venue of the public meeting in Khaar two days ahead of the meeting. However, more than 1,000 activists managed to reach the venue in small groups.
The JI amir spoke to the public meeting over telephone from Tor Ghundi. He said that the party and its allies would struggle for the abolition of the Frontier Crimes Regulation in tribal areas. He also criticized the Wana operation and accused the government of human rights violations.
He said that the government was making excessive use of the FCR to prevent the people from raising voice against atrocities meted out to tribesmen under the pretext that they were helping foreign militants in the South Waziristan Agency. One of the local party leader, Zar Noor Afridi, managed to reach the venue where he addressed the gathering.
BAN CRITICIZED: President of Awami National Party, Khyber Agency, Imran Afridi has lamented the ban on entry of Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad into Bajaur Agency and demanded extension of Political Parties Act to the tribal areas, our Landi Kotal correspondent adds.
In a statement issued here, Mr Afridi alleged that a handful of tribal elders were bent upon depriving the tribesmen of their political and democratic rights by asking the government to impose a ban on political activities in the tribal areas.
He said that despite his party's political differences with the Jamaat chief, he strongly opposed the ban on Qazi Hussain Ahmad's entry into Bajaur Agency. He alleged that "a group of rejected tribal chiefs" were opposed to political activities in Fata, and accused them of pocketing personal benefits from the political administration.
Mr Afridi said that the bureaucracy would never allow political awareness to flourish in the tribal areas and insisted that such awareness could come only with the extension of Political Parties Act to the tribal areas.
