Parallel justice: Jirga settles Soomro-Jatoi seven-year-old dispute

It finds Soomro tribe guilty of killing two rival men, fines them Rs1.6 million

SUKKUR: A seven-year-old dispute between the Soomro and Jatoi tribesmen came to an end on Sunday evening when a jirga in Adam Khan Panhwar village in Jacobabad settled the conflict.

The jirga was presided over by former provincial minister Mir Manzoor Panhwar and was attended by Mehboob Ali Soomro and Aftab Soomro who represented the Soomro tribe, while Sukhio Jatoi represented the Jatoi tribe.

The jirga elders found the Soomro tribe guilty of killing two Jatoi tribesmen, including an elder, and imposed a fine of Rs1.6 million. It also imposed an additional fine of Rs500,000 on the Soomro  tribesmen for killing an elder of the Jatoi tribe.

The jirga also found the Jatoi tribe guilty of killing one Soomro man and injuring another. It fined them Rs850,000. The two sides accepted the verdict and paid Rs100,000 each on the spot and promised to pay the remaining amount in a month.

The dispute between the two tribesmen took place in Kandhra, which is 10km from Sukkur. The two families were daggers drawn over a piece of land for the past seven years.

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