Jirga fines Waziristan SHO for registering FIR

Policeman booked a tribesman when he tried to build a house on disputed land

DERA ISMAIL KHAN:

In a strange development, a local Jirga has fined a police SHO for registering an FIR in Lower South Waziristan tribal district of K-P.

Local residents told The Express Tribune that the elders of Ahmadzai clan decided in a Jirga that the house of a local SHO Sub-Inspector Saifullah would be burnt down after he registered an FIR against a local tribesman.

“The FIR highly enraged the local tribal elders who decided that the SI would be punished as per the local law but later the decision was withdrawn and instead a fine of Rs1 million was imposed on him,” said a local elder, saying that the FIR had been registered against a local and the tribal elders considered it unfair and ‘offensive’.

SI Saifulah is an SHO of Speen Police Station who registered an FIR against a local resident Hayatullah for building a house in Karkara, which has been a disputed land between Zila Khel and Dotani clans for the past two decades.

Police considered the building on the disputed land an offense which could lead to violent clashes between the two clans so the construction was stopped and an FIR registered against the accused who was arrested.

“The Jirga withdrew its decision of torching the house of the SHO later but imposed Rs1 million fine on him,” said a police officer, adding that the DPO has been informed about the entire development who declared the FIR valid and ordered the SHO to continue his work.

“The Jirga is actually a party in the land dispute and it had directed the accused to build the house,” he said.

Despite the merger of erstwhile Fata with K-P in 2018, tribal Jirgas are still operating in the area and local residents often consult these bodies due to speedy and inexpensive justice.

Terrorism is the biggest hurdle to the establishment of effective government writ in these areas where land disputes abound and hundreds of people are killed each year in personal feuds.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2023.