Peace disrupted a day after truce

Tribal elders assert Sunday’s attack on Toori Bangash village was state-sponsored.

ISLAMABAD: A day after reported truce between warring tribes in Kurram Agency, armed Taliban lashkar from Lower Kurram attacked neighbouring tribe Toori Bangash’s village Blashkhel on Sunday, sources said.

The Express Tribune has learnt that strong resistance repulsed the attack, but heavy fighting continued.

In an emergency meeting on Sunday, elders’ council of Toori Bangash tribe in Kurram Agency said the incident was part of state-supported terrorism and accused the Commandant Frontier Corps and security forces of pressuring the tribe into giving shelter to the Haqqani group.

The tribal elders said the government should punish the commandant FC through court martial “because he had tortured our tribesmen”. “Otherwise we will raise our protest with the United Nations and Amnesty International against four years of inhuman siege, state’s support for fleeing Taliban,” they threatened. They said that they will not shelter the Haqqani group Upper Kurram.

On Saturday morning, Commandant FC had announced that a convoy being escorted by FC from Parachinar to Thall city, was blocked when it reached Bagan village of Lower Kurram by armed Taliban and their local supporters, who said that they did not accept any deal for opening the road. The convoy had to return, while the FC took no action, sources said.

Earlier, The Express Tribune has learnt that a grand tribal jirga in Parachinar had negotiated a truce between warring tribes after three years of fighting, which left over 2,000 dead and at least 3,500 injured. Sajid Toori and Munir Orakzai, two lawmakers from Kurram Agency, had said that a formal announcement of the truce will be made on Monday at a news conference.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st,  2011.