Casualties as Nangarhar tribesmen, police clash

JALALABAD (PAN): An operation has been launched against gunmen of a tribe after they attacked security forces in the Achin district of eastern Nangarhar province, officials said on Saturday.

Over the past two years, two sub-tribes of the Shinwari tribe —Ali Sherkhel and Sepai — have been fighting each other over state-owned land in the district. So far dozens of people have suffered casualties.

On Tuesday, Governor Gul Agha Sherzai ordered security officials to take stern action against the tribes engaged in the armed conflict.

On Thursday, the tribes promised to pull out their gunmen from the disputed desert, but the Sepai tribesmen laced with guns attacked a base of security forces on Friday.

Sherzai, commanders of Afghan National Army (ANA) and police were holding a meeting on the base, border police commander, Gen. Aminullah Amarkhel, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Two policemen were injured in the attack and seven attackers were killed when the forces returned fire and another 65 attackers were detained during the clash, Spin Ghar district police chief, Malak Zarjan, said.

Fifteen injured people had been brought to hospital, Nangarhar Civil Hospital chief, Dr. Baz Mohammad Sherzad, said.

However, Hayatullah, a family member of a tribal elder from the Sepai tribe, Malak Osman, said more than 100 people of their tribe suffered casualties and 80 others were detained as a result of the gun-battle.

Four ANA soldiers and a guard of Sherzai were killed in the clash, a tribal elder of Ali Sherkhel sub-tribe, Mullah Jan Shinwari, said.

On Friday, the two tribes under an agreement with the government vowed to vacate the desert, but the armed men from the Sepai tribe once again seized the desert and occupaid the vacated trenches there on Friday night, the governor’s spokesman, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, said.

When Sherzai sent a delegation to convince the two sides to quit the area, they opened fire on the security personnel, injuring three policemen and damaging two of their vehicles, he said. Three armed men were killed and two others wounded when police retaliated, he added.

myn/ma/mud

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