LANDI KOTAL: The beleaguered Sipah tribe of Bara has finally announced formation of a 80-member Qaumi Sareshtha besides publicly denouncing militancy and a pledge to desist from supporting and patronising any militant organisation.

The decision was made at a jirga of Sipah elders held on Thursday amid renewed efforts by a neutral jirga to strike deal between Sipah tribe and Khyber Agency political administration and convince the beleaguered tribe to accept the government’s conditions for return of its displaced families.

The Sipah jirga unanimously resolved to keep their territory clear of all militant groups, resist hoisting of flags of outlawed organisations atop their houses and assist security forces in tracking down wanted men.

The newly formed Qaumi Sareshtha includes 20 elders each from the four sub-tribes of Sipah -- Warmatkhel, Ghaibikhel, Surankhel and Alamgudar. A deadline was set for all the 223 wanted men of the tribe to voluntarily hand over themselves to the Sareshtha till Dec 31.

Forms peace body and publicly denounces militancy

The local administration had only a week ago handed them over a fresh list of wanted men which also included the name of Mangal Bagh, the leader of banned Lashkar-i-Islam, and some of his trusted lieutenants. Mangal Bagh also belongs to Sipah tribe and has reportedly fled to Afghanistan after the launch of Khyber One operation in October last year.

In the past, the Sipah elders had been resisting official pressure to help it in tracking down wanted men. The Qaumi Sareshtha will help and assist the security forces in tracking down wanted militants if they fail to surrender to the Qaumi Sareshtha till the end of this month. The Sipah elders, however, linked their support to the announcement of a date for the repatriation of all the displaced families of their tribe.

Officials said that over 50,000 displaced families of Akkakhel, Shalobar, Malak Dinkhel and Bar Qambarkhel tribes had already returned to their respective areas under the repatriation plan started in March this year.

The jirga also demanded of the administration to release all the innocent Sipah tribesmen, who were either arrested during the military operation on suspicion of assisting militants or surrendered to the security forces.

“A good number of innocent tribesmen are languishing in the captivity of security forces and political administration. They need to be released without any further delay,” the Sipah jirga demanded. The jirga, however, again rejected paying any fine for alleged involvement of the tribe in attacking security forces during the military operation.

GRID STATION: Khyber Agency Political Agent Shahab Ali Shah has said that a separate grid station for Khyber Agency would be set up in the coming six months to overcome unscheduled power loadshedding in the agency.

Speaking at an open court at Khyber House, he said that Rs80 million was allocated for the new grid station. He said that at present electricity to three sub-divisions of Khyber Agency was provided from the grid stations located in Peshawar and the local authorities had no control over the loadshedding schedule.

“With the establishment of our own grid station, the timing of loadshedding would be regulated by the local staff and local residents would not be subjected to unscheduled and prolong power suspensions,” the official said.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2015