| Daily Times - Site Edition | Tuesday, April 15, 2008 |
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Tribe seeks action against LI
* Armed men ready to block Lashkar-e-Islam’s advance
By Daud Khattak
JAMRUD: The ‘Blackwater’ role of Lashkar-e-Islam’s (LI) self-proclaimed chief Mangal Bagh has brought the tribes from the Bara and Jamrud sub-divisions of Khyber Agency to an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, while the government and its security agencies have yet to take action to defuse the tension, residents have said.
The 45-kilometre Peshawar-Torkham Highway, connecting Pakistan with Afghanistan, remained closed on Monday from Karkhano Phatak, the point bifurcating the settled areas of Peshawar from Khyber Agency, up to the Torkham border crossing.
“We can’t implement the Mangal Bagh brand of Islam on ourselves and our people,” elders from the Katya Khel sub-tribe of the Kooki Khel tribe, gathered at a Hujra, told Daily Times. They said they were “as much Muslims as Mangal Bagh and his men,” adding, “He should not teach us Islam.”
Representing the sub-tribe Haji Shamshad, Haji Muhammad Ashraf, and Haji Sarfaraz said they were being asked to hoist black flags on their houses and surrender before the LI men. “All their demands are absurd as we’ve already taken action against those involved in smuggling, the hashish trade, kidnappings for ransom, and murders,” they said.
The elders also lashed out at the government for not taking action against Bagh and his men. “We closed the highway as a last resort to convey our grievances to the government at the Centre,” they said. While neither Bagh nor any of his men could be reached for comments, locals said that the LI chief had aired 30 points that he wanted the Kooki Khel tribe to follow, through his FM radio station last night. “We will not go back. Accept the demands or get ready for an action,” those who listened to Bagh’s FM radio station told Daily Times.
Advance: Armed men from the Kookikhel tribe are patrolling the road. They have set up pickets and trenches on the roadside, besides fixing machineguns and rocket launchers in their houses to block any advance by the LI men, who are positioned in the Shah Kas area with heavy weaponry, sources said.
Hundreds of harassed citizens, especially women and children, were seen leaving their houses and arriving in Peshawar on foot on Monday morning.