EDITORIAL: Mercifully, the Kurram warring tribes have reportedly agreed to cease hostilities for a year. The area had witnessed bloody clashes that erupted between two tribal groups over a land dispute in Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Friday July 7 had left 11 people dead and 70 others injured by Tuesday.
Meanwhile, people in the affected areas faced shortage of food items, medicines and fuel due to blockade of roads. Educational institutions also remained closed. Unable to end the fighting on its own the interim provincial government has requested the federal government to deploy additional military and paramilitary troops to the troubled district. That highlights the gravity of the situation.
A 30-member jirga comprising tribal elders has also been sent to the area to hold negotiations with the two warring parties and bring down temperatures. And Parachinar, district headquarters of Kurram, having a history of sectarian strife, a PPP leader from KP, Faisal Karim Kundi, has felt it necessary to ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to intervene before Muharram, pointing out that a land dispute between two tribes is being labelled (on social media) as a sectarian issue, which is not true.
A day earlier, i.e., on Monday, a delegation from Kurram addressed a news conference at the National Press Club in Islamabad, complaining that the authorities are not listening to elders of both Shia and Sunni communities. They alleged that the authorities had fallen short in preventing the ingress of terrorists from Afghanistan, who had not only damaged the border fence but were repeatedly attacking civilian populations in Kurram district.
Insisting that the present conflict had nothing to do with sectarian issues, a resident of Parachinar claimed that unbridled TTP terrorists along with Laskhar-i-Jhangvi absconders were inciting sectarian sentiments. Considering the seriousness of all these assertions, the relevant authorities need to determine their veracity, and if true take necessary action.
Once the law enforcement agencies restore peace, the government should pay urgent attention to the issue at hand.
According to the Home and Tribal Affairs Department of KP, there are eight land disputes in central, upper and lower areas of Kurram district that go back to pre-Independence time, which merits the question why has the Kurram Land Commission ignored this incendiary issue all these years? It is good to note, however, that the KP government has now formed a high-level revenue commission for the settlement of measured or unmeasured land in the troubled district. Hopefully, that would help avert more violent altercations over land claims.
The government has also taken notice of those giving a sectarian colour to the clashes on social media, warning that “strict monitoring of social media is in place, and all such miscreants will be dealt with severely”.
It also needs to approach local religious leaders from both sects to stop them from inflaming sectarian passions. An uneasy calm prevails in Parachinar after a protracted period of sectarian violence. No one should be allowed to disturb it.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023