PESHAWAR: Police authorities have suggested encouraging jirgas of effective religious scholars and noble elders along with keeping a check on issuance of licenses for prohibited weapons to bring an end to hundreds of blood feuds that are threatening law and order.
Blood feuds claim more lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa than terrorism every year as the government and police are struggling against the increasing number of armed groups and gun culture in the society.
Some recent media reports said around 300 people have lost lives in firing during the last four months only in Peshawar. Last year around 600 people were killed over enmities and petty disputes in the city.
“Only policing cannot resolve such decades old feuds. The local Ulema, civil society and other influential have to come forward to resolve these enmities to eliminate the root cause,” the capital city police authorities recently wrote to the Central Police Office after they were directed to submit report regarding hundreds of enmities that claimed innumerable lives in the recent years.
The report admitted there are some decades-old enmities that have taken the lives of scores of people and the main reasons were identified as Zar, Zan and Zameen (money, honour and property).
“Because of these prolonged enmities a culture of carrying weapons had developed in the area and the violence has spread to other families and areas too. Settlement of outsiders is also a factor as some of them brought their enmities with them to this area,” the letter mentioned specifically about Badaber. The murders reported only in Badaber last year were more than killings in many districts.
“Another reason for the increase in bloodshed in the past year is issuance of arms licenses, especially prohibited bore,” stated the letter. It added that with the arbitration/Jirgas of local well-wishers and notables, some of the enmities have been resolved too and this is one encouraging and effective tool of reducing violence.
A letter by the SP Saddar Peshawar informed that percentage of arrest in enmities remained 61% which is below satisfactory, mainly because raids on proclaimed offenders and their supporters were minimal due to other engagements of police.
It added result oriented raids in rural areas are always successful when such raids are carried out during midnight or before dawn; but as the circumstances did not allow police to go out at night, therefore deterrence became low
It asked the police bosses to approach quarters concerned for cancellation if any weapon is used in penal offence. The menace has increased further in the recent years as enmities have become more violent.
Jirgas and bodies formed to settle disputes have failed to resolve a large number of sSuch feuds in the rural, urban and suburban towns of Peshawar and other districts. Some of these disputes have claimed dozens of lives and there is still no end to it.
The rising gun culture and the government’s failure to control it have made these enmities even more violent. In some recent incidents in Peshawar, houses were attacked and cars were ambushed by the rivals armed with sophisticated weapons.