Collective responsibility: Mohmand tribesmen punished for failing to maintain peace

Political administration ban quarrying at marble mine

SHABQADAR: The political administration of Mohmand Agency on Sunday stopped local tribesmen from quarrying at the Ziarat marble mine to punish them for their failure to maintain peace in the region.

Officials said the ban on mining in the Safi area was imposed after the local tribesmen failed to fulfill their collective responsibility as defined in the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) in maintaining peace in the Safi area.

At least 90 incidents of violence have taken place across the agency, of which 38 have been in the Safi area alone, one official said.  “Human lives have been lost in these violent acts,” he added but would not say how many.

He said the local tribesmen had been repeatedly told to fulfill their collective responsibility or face consequences. The administration convened a jirga of the elders of Safi tribe, but two days later a prominent tribal elder, Malak Dara Khan, was killed in a bomb blast. The said the mining ban would not be lifted until the tribesmen fulfilled their responsibility.

The tribesmen said the ban violated their basic rights enshrined in the Constitution. Conceding that the security situation was fluid in the Safi area, tribal elder Malak Azeem Khan said the ban would neither benefit the tribesmen nor the administration.

“Because of the ban, hundreds of local miners will be deprived of their basic livelihoods, and the administration will lose revenue,” he said.

He said that tribesmen always supported the administration, but they could do nothing when confronted by unidentified militants. “Security forces can act in a better way than us.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2016.