Police arrest jirga members from Kurram Agency

Daily Times ^ | Wednesday, May 21, 2008 | Daud Khattak

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PESHAWAR: Police on Tuesday arrested 50 members of a tribal jirga from Kurram Agency after they failed to reach an agreement.

The detained members included 25 elders each from the Shia and Sunni sects of Kurram Agency. They had been tasked with finalising proof of those responsible for violating the peace agreement between the two sects.

However, the two sides could not reach a final decision after 10 days of deliberations, resulting in the police arresting them on the recommendations of a 16-member Hangu Peace Jirga led by District Nazim Shah Hussain and Orakzai Agency Political Agent Zaheerul Islam.

According to officials, the Kurram Agency jirga members were provided boarding and lodging at a hotel for 10 days, besides transport in a helicopter from Kurram Agency to Peshawar. They were asked to prove the guilt of the people who violated an earlier peace accord so that they could be fined Rs 2 million.

However, no complaints were lodged, apparently with mutual understanding to avoid the fine as both sides had violated the accord. Ultimately, the political agent and the Hangu Peace Jirga asked the local police to arrest all of them. More than 600 people have been killed, and nearly 1,500 injured, with huge losses to public and private property since the breaking out of sectarian clashes in Kurram Agency in early April.

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This article illustrates the extaordinaily complex and chaotic politics/warfare of Pakistan.

The Kurram Agency (FATA) borders Afghanistan, S of Tora Bora, is closest to Kabul, N of Waziristan and is the most central theater in the Afghan-Paki conflict.

The dominant Turi tribe (Pahktuns), is Shia and supported by Iran.

The Watizai tribe (Pathans) moved into lower Kurram years ago, is Sunni and has been in a constant state of war with the Turis ever since.

Bin Laden and the Zia-ul-haq led Paki Army, and our CIA supported the Watizai. We wanted a base of operations against the Russians in Afghanistan and against Iran.

A 1996 truce lasted 11 years until shooting started at a religious parade in April, 2007. Full shia/sunni jihad there since.

Another truce last December, just broken. When the recent peace jirga broke down into bickering and fist fights, the Pakis jailed the elders until the instigators were named.

Mutual silence.

So everyone was let go and the "peace jirga" continues.

In the midst of all this, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and its Uzbeks, move freely. We have SF advisors training their Frontier Corps, Predators overhead, at least half of the world's opium is transported. Intelligence agents from everyone from the Russians, Iranians, Israelis, French, NATO, India roam about bribing/looking for allies.

To top it off, the Paki ANP separatist party (whose leader Wali just visited our CENTCOM last Friday) is trying to get the whole FATA/NWFP area to break away from Pakistan.

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BTW, there are at least 3 other Paki subnational feuds ongoing that are multi-generational and the Kashmir war with India.

There will never be peace. There will never be calm until roads and development occur to weaken the tribal relationships.

We should use the chaos to: exterminate Al Qaeda and create Pahktunistan from their dominant areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

We will be here much longer than in Iraq and there is no other way to interdict the sunni jihadists and the opium trade from attacking the West.