Jirga: Mehsuds decline to help in recovering dam workers

Tell political agent they are not bound by FCR laws as IDPs.

PESHAWAR:

The elders of the Mehsud Dhra tribe have told the political agent that they cannot help in the recovery of kidnapped workers of the Gomal Zam Dam because the Mehsud people have been forced out of their land and are living as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps.

The Political Agent of South Waziristan, Shahidullah Khan, had called a jirga of the elders of the Mehsud tribe at his office in Tank for the safe return of the Gomal Zam Dam workers who were kidnapped three days earlier from the Neel Kuch area of South Waziristan.

Khan told the jirga that the Mehsud tribe owns the Neel Kuch, and are therefore bound to recover the kidnapped persons under the collective and territorial responsibilities of the FCR.

The jirga told the political agent that the Mehsud tribe admits that Neel Kuch is Mehsud land, but presently Mehsuds are IDPs living outside South Waziristan and not in the position to recover the kidnapped persons.

The collective and territorial responsibilities of the tribes under the FCR cannot apply to IDPs, they said. The political agent agreeing with the jirga participants, decided to hold another meeting after Eid.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2012.