Retreat: Tensions recede as rival tribes withdraw from armed posts

Akazai, Nusratkhel men in Torghar have been in a long-standing dispute over land ownership.

TORGHAR:

The men of two rival tribes agreed to pull back from their standoff over land ownership and to settle the dispute in a court of law, said policemen on Wednesday.

A dispute between the two Nusratkhel and Akazai tribes of Torghar over 200 kanals of land has been simmering since many decades. Bloody clashes in 1921 left over 100 people dead and several villages razed to the ground. After Torghar took on the status of a district in 2011, the government announced several development schemes, including plans for a road to pass through the disputed property. Several tribes from the area attest the said land has been in the use of Akazai tribe.

However, since the government would have paid compensation for building a road through the land to the ‘owners’, both Nusratkhel and Akazai have claimed ownership.

Last week, Nusratkhel tribesmen occupied the land, forcibly preventing Akazais from harvesting and tilling their crops.

The two sides took positions on hilltops and farmland about six days back, making residents fear imminent violence and casualties.

However, Torghar DPO Iftikharuddin Khan said he called the elders of the two sides on Tuesday evening and held a jirga with representatives from other tribes of the district. The jirga persuaded them to pull back from their aggressive, armed stance and take the matter to court instead. The DPO told The Express Tribune he warned the two sides force would be used against them to ensure the writ of state if they failed to retreat. After long deliberations, the two sides have called back their men and Nusratkhel’s men allowed Akazai’s to work their crops.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2014.