Services have been suspended on the instructions of local authorities as part of security measures during Muharram. — Photo by APP

The authorities completely sealed both Hangu and Kohat districts at 5pm till Monday afternoon while Kohat-Hangu highway was also closed for traffic.

The authorities have deputed retired army men at various places to perform duty with police constables due to shortage of security personnel. The armoured personnel carriers have also been transported from Punjab for laying security blanket across the most sensitive districts of Kohat and Hangu, which share long borders with Orakzai, Kurram and North Waziristan agencies and Frontier Region of Kohat.

Police have also impounded hundred of vehicles in Hangu and Kohat. Due to shortage of local transport 90 per cent population of Kohat, which lives in rural areas, has been facing extreme hardships.

JIRGA The issue of mourners route, the bone of contention between the rival sects and the government for years, was amicably resolved at a jirga in Hangu on Sunday.The local leaders of Shia community at the jirga wholeheartedly accepted the government's decision to restrict mourners' procession of 10th Muharram to their imambargahs.

They assured the government that they would no more press for taking out the procession through Hangu bazaar. They agreed to abide by the curfew imposed in the bazaar for their security.

The ulema had been adamant for the last several years to take out the procession through Hangu bazaar. The idea was bitterly opposed by the other side, which suffered losses worth billions of rupees in riots of 2006 during Muharram.

The Sunni elders did not insist on changing the old and traditional route of the procession and authorised the jirga to make any decision in the public interest and peace in the region. However, they set a condition that the Shia community should formally apologise for the damage caused to their property during riots following the suicide attack at the procession in 2006.

The peace agreement was reached among the stakeholders at the jirga, held in Orakzai House, but it was not made public to foil the designs of elements, who wanted to politicise the issue.

The jirga also unanimously demanded that the remaining affectees of 2006 riots should be immediately compensated.
Kohat Commissioner Khalid Khan Umerzai asked both the sides to submit the names of such affectees so that the matter could be taken up with the provincial government.

The commissioner thanked the political agent of Orakzai Agency, Riaz Khan Mehsud and Hangu DCO Syed Mussadiq Ali Shah for playing key role in brokering the historical peace accord between the two estranged sects after 14 years.

It was attended by the local elders Jamil Khan, Faiz Shinwari, Hangu district Khateeb Maulana Jawd Ahmed Jawadi, Haji Hussain, Hussianal Hussaini, Malik Irfan, Javed Ibraheem Paracha, Kohat DIG Abdullah Khan and Kohat DCO Kifayatullah Khan.

Mr Umerzai told Dawn that the decision would cast a positive impression on the socio-economic conditions, which had been deteriorating due to rising tension in the whole region including Kurram and Orakzai agencies, Kohat and Hangu.