SUKKUR, Jan 17: The Jatoi-Mahar Jirga, which was scheduled to be held on Friday, could not be held and was postponed indefinitely because of the inordinate delay in arrival of the leaders of the Jatoi tribe.

Representatives of the Mahar tribe — federal minister for railways Ghous Bakhsh Mahar, Ghotki district Nazim Sardar Ali Gohar Mahar, and Sindh minister Manzoor Panhwar — had arrived at the Circuit House on Friday morning.

However, the representatives of the Jatoi tribe — Khadim Hussain Jatoi and MPA Abid Jatoi, along with 250 Jatoi tribesmen — reached the Circuit House at 1pm.

The Jatois attributed their delay to a rocket attack on the Roedad Jatoi village and accused the Mahars of the attack. No loss of life was reported in the attack, which left some of the Jatois houses damaged.

Sardar Ali Gohar Mahar, however, demanded the police to institute an inquiry into another rocket attack, this time on the Rehmatullah Mahar village.

He said that the Mahars would take part in the Jirga after completion of the police inquiry.

The Mahars said that more Mahar tribesmen had been killed in the dispute between the two tribes and their presence at the Circuit House was evidence enough of their sincerity to resolve the dispute.

They accused the Jatois of insincerity, saying that their absence had proven that they (the Jatois) did not want to further reconciliation efforts.

According to reports, some buffaloes had been killed in the rocket attack on the Rehmatullah village.

Shikarpur: When contacted, the federal minister for railways, Ghous Bakhsh Mahar, and the district Nazim, Shikarpur, Mohammad Arif Mahar, said that they had accompanied the Mahar chieftain, Sardar Ali Gohar Khan Mahar to attend the Jirga and had waited for their rivals till 12 noon.

However, they said that the Jatoi Sardar and other tribesmen, involved in the tribal dispute, did not arrive at the venue of the Jirga by then.

They accused the Jatois of not wanting to settle the on-going dispute, blaming them for hindering the arbitration efforts by adopting such tactics as firing on one of their villages.

Meanwhile, Sardar Khadim Hussain Khan Jatoi, while talking to this correspondent, said that he and other responsible Jatoi tribesmen had arrived at the Sukkur Circuit House but by then the Jirga had been postponed.

Jatoi blamed Ghous Bakhsh for the Jirga’s failure, saying that he was not sincere regarding the settlement of the Mahar-Jatoi dispute. He said that Ghous Bakhsh wanted to avenge the deaths of 35 Mahar tribesmen killed in the on-going dispute between the two tribes.

Jatoi said that he and Sardar Ali Gohar Khan Mahar wanted to stop the bloodshed and in this regard both the chieftains had been doing their best to put an end to the tribal dispute.