Tribal force torches house of criminal in Bajaur

A tribal force of Naraza village torched and demolished the house of a local criminal in Salarzai Tehsil of Bajaur tribal district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

The elders of the village, situated near Pak-Afghan border, gathered to decide the fate of a local man who attacked and fired at a local prayer leader. It was decided unanimously that the man identified as Hussain had committed a crime and tried to murder a man thus jeopardizing the peace of the area.

“A local resident Hussain had some dispute with the local cleric Qari Younas in Naraza village and fired at him when he was coming out of the mosque. Afterwards the boy fled to avoid arrest,” said a local resident while talking to The Express Tribune, adding that the victim lodged an FIR with the police but even then the Gabar Khel clan assembled a Jirga and decided to settle the matter the traditional way.

“They decided to raise a tribal lashkar and torch the house of the offender and the decision was implemented afterwards,” said the locals.

It is worth mentioning here that despite the merger of the former Fata with the settled districts of K-P, some local traditions still run parallel to the law, including the Jirga system as well as tribal lashkars.

Read Modern justice, policing systems struggle in Bajaur

Local leaders try to make decisions and implement them through lashkars often in violation of law. In Waziristan most of the local clans have banned the sale of land to outsiders and the violators are often punished with the house demolition and torching through armed lashkars.

The local administration and police can’t stop them due to the large size of such lashkars in which every villager or member of the clan is asked to participate.

Recently a local tribal Jirga in Bajaur banned the visits of women to the local common facility centers where pregnant women and mothers with infants are paid a monthly stipend by the government in order to control malnourishment among children. This decision provoked widespread criticism on social media forcing the authorities to take action after which the decision was withdrawn.

When contacted DPO Bajaur Shahzada Kukab said that Salarzai is a far-flung tehsil of Bajaur district and it takes a two-hour trek to reach the village from the nearest road.

“Our police reached there but the house had been torched by then. There is no concession with anyone. Around 33 people have been booked under anti-terrorism sections and they are being arrested,” he said.

Locals blamed that the house was set on fire in the presence of police which didn’t intervene. Last year, in the same area the house of an assassin was attacked and torched by the tribal lashkar in a similar fashion.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2021.