Flouting the law: Section 144 imposed in Sagi Shinwari

Curfew relaxed after tribes hand over 25 suspects

SHABQADAR: A curfew imposed in the Sagi Shinwari area of Mohmand was relaxed on Monday after local tribes handed over 25 suspects who had participated in a mob which killed two suspected assailants and later destroyed three houses of a local tribesman.

Lifting the curfew, the tribal district administration imposed curbs on carrying firearms, riding motorbikes and public gatherings in the area under Section 144 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

While the district administration did not specify the period for which the curbs shall remain in place, it is believed that they will prevail until local tribes hand over the remaining 10 suspects sought by the district administration.

The Mohmand tribal district administration had imposed a curfew in the Sagi Shinwari area of the district over the weekend after locals decided to flout the law and act per tribal customs to respond to the assassination of a local politician allegedly by another local tribesman.

Awami National Party (ANP) Sagi chapter leader Sher Rehman Khan had been killed outside his home on Thursday, apparently over personal enmity with another local. The assassins, though, had been apprehended and killed by a mob of angry locals.

On Friday, a local tribal jirga had decided to excommunicate Haji Speen Gul for hiring the assassins to kill Sher. Later on Friday, incensed locals took the law into their own hands and destroyed three houses linked to Gul, in line with tribal customs.

With the situation spiralling out of control, Mohmand District Commissioner Wasif Saeed, along with a contingent of law enforcement officials visited Sagi Shinwari on Saturday and imposed a curfew.

The Upper Mohmand Assistant Commissioner visited the area on Sunday and signed a three-year agreement with all tribal elders to abide by state law instead of resorting to tribal customs.

In a statement issued by the Mohmand tribal district administration, it read that the district administration had arrested 72 people believed to be involved in the two mobs which killed the suspected assassins on Thursday and those who burned down three houses in Sagi Shinwari on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2018.