2 clerics’ houses destroyed on jirga’s orders

KHAR: Armed tribesmen on Friday destroyed the houses of two clerics for allegedly sheltering Al Qaeda suspects in Bajaur Agency besides fining them Rs 1 million each after a jirga (tribal council) decided to act against them, a tribal elder said. Hundreds of armed tribesmen burnt the houses of Mulla Muhammad Amin and Mulla Faqir Muhammad to punish them for protecting suspected Al Qaeda members, the tribal elder told Daily Times. The clerics were punished for violating the decision taken by a jirga on January 28, 2004. Security forces in a raid early this month arrested around a dozen terror suspects including an Uzbek, from the houses of Mulla Amin and Mulla Faqir and seized weapons from them. Tribal councillor Malik Shah Jehan said the punishment was announced “without evidence against the two accused”, adding that the government had not given them proof that the arrested men were foreigners, but they were carrying out the exercise according to their tribal customs. “The government did not make any formal announcement about the arrests, but press reports suggested the arrest of a foreigner from their (the clerics’) houses,” he told the jirga. Witnesses said families of Mulla Amin and Mulla Faqir did not resist when the houses were destroyed. However, a remote-controlled bomb went off when the armed tribesmen were going to damage the house a cleric after doing the same to another’s. staff repot

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