Ceasefire reached between Zazai, Mangal tribes

GARDEZ (PAN on Thursday succeeded in brokering a ceasefire between two warring tribes — Zazai and Mangal — in southeastern Paktia province, officials said.

Deputy governor Abdul Wali Sahi told Pajhwok Afghan News the jirga involved governor and officials from the interior and tribal affairs ministries and tribal elders.

They had been able to broker the truce after talks with notables from the two tribes, who had a history of violent clashes over the ownership rights of a land.

The latest clash between the tribes took place on Monday, when five houses were torched.

Armed tribesmen from both sides evacuated their trenches and returned homes after accepting the jirga’s decision to resolve the dispute through negotiations, the deputy governor said.

Sahi said the ceasefire had temporarily been reached, but stopped short of giving further details. He said it would become clear at a later stage how the dispute could be settled.

Senator Laiq Mangal, a tribal elder from Paktia, said the mediators had been tasked with sending armed tribesmen homes from the trenches where they had taken positions against each other.

The mediators, he said, would visit the disputed land to study the case minutely, adding another jirga would be formed to seek a permanent solution to the dispute.

Rohullah Samoon, the governor’s spokesman, said the Jirga announced the ceasefire last night at around 9:00pm. He said the mediators had been working round-the-clock to settle the dispute once and for all.

Under the ceasefire agreement, he said if a party violated the ceasefire or approached the disputed land would be fined 50 million afghanis which would be deposited into the national exchequer.

It merits a mention here that ten tribesmen have been killed or injured in armed clashes between Zazai and Mangal tribe as part of a dispute over a piece of land in Dand Patan district.

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