Deadly dispute: Two nomads killed in clash with tribesmen

Two groups fired at each other over a long-standing feud.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Two nomads from Waziristan were killed in a clash between Gandapur tribesmen and nomads from Waziristan in Sawar Kand mountains of Kulachi tehsil, DI Khan.

According to police officials, armed nomads seized 12 cows and 25 goats belonging to the Gandapur tribe from Loni area of Kulachi tehsil. The Gandapur tribesmen then followed the nomads and intercepted them at Sawar Kand, a mountainous area near the South Waziristan border. Both sides opened fire and two nomads were killed in the resultant shootout. The deceased belonged to the Suleman Khel tribe of Toi Khula tehsil, South Waziristan, and were identified as Ajab Khan and Qadar Khan.



According to Mazhar Gandapur, a resident of Kulachi tehsil, Gandapur tribesmen took with them the bodies of the deceased. The bodies were released after a jirga negotiation, and the nomads returned the cows and goats.

A few days earlier, DI Khan police recovered 14 people, including children, belonging to a tribal nomadic family during a raid at Kot Wali Dad area in DI Khan. The family of eight children, three women and three men was travelling in a passenger bus when they were kidnapped by four armed men of the Gandapur tribe.

The two tribes have been party to an unresolved pasture dispute for the last 30 years and numerous casualties have occurred on both sides ever since. During the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister’s visit to DI Khan, the Gandapur tribe, led by Ikramullah Gandapur, demanded a resolution to this long-standing issue between the two tribes.

So far, several local jirga and government efforts have failed to find a solution to
the dispute.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2013.