Warring Nangarhar tribes agree on truce

JALALABAD (PAN): Two major tribes have agreed on a three-year ceasefire over a land dispute that had claimed several lives from the two sides in the eastern province of Nangarhar, an official said on Monday.

Speaking at a joint conference with Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sehrzai, presidential adviser on tribal affairs, Asadullah Wafa, hoped the ceasefire between the two sub-tribes of Shinwari tribe — Seepai and Alisherkhel — would end the two-year-old dispute.

Several men of the tribes have been killed in clashes over the land in Kahi desert situated between Achin and Spinghar districts, he added.

Both sides had agreed in written form at the provincial court not to attack each other for next three years, the adviser said.

Wafa said legal issues between the two sides would be resolved through a traditional Jirga, adding such cases in other parts of the country would also be resolved with the help of jirgas.

To a question about violation of previous decisions of jirgas by the tribes, he said the two sides had promised in the court that they would remain committed to the agreement.

“The land is currently in control of border police and no one is allowed to own it or build houses or cultivate crops on it,” Governor Gul Agha Sherzai said.

The Governor’s House and security officials had accepted the decision of an 11-member delegation led by Asadullah Wafa two months back, he said. The delegation had been appointed by President Hamid Karzai.

“If any of the two sides breaches the agreement, it would have to pay 10 billion afghanis ($202,675,000) in fine,” a tribal elder from the Seepai tribe, Malak Usman, said.

According to Mullah Jan Shinwari, an Alishirkhil tribe elder, the two sides had agreed that no one would block roads, close healthcare centres and schools against each other under the agreement. The violators would be fined, he said.

“We are committed to the ceasefire agreement and we will discuss other issues in the future,” he said.

As many as 200 people have so far been killed or wounded as a result of the conflict between the two tribes over the past two years. 

mds/ma

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