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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police tasked with documenting blood feuds

By Javed Aziz Khan
June 24, 2021

PESHAWAR: The police across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been tasked with documenting the blood feuds and involving the Dispute Resolution Councils (DRCs) as well as local elders to settle rivalries.

“All the regional and district police officers have been directed to identify and document the blood feuds in their respective areas. They have been ordered to suggest solutions and involve the DRCs as well as local elders to settle the enmities before they create law and order situation,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) Moazzam Jah Ansari told The News.

The police chief said the RPOs and DPOs have already started compiling lists of enmities that have claimed lives or can be a potential threat to law and order. “The officers have also been directed not to let the rival groups brandish weapons to harass the general public or use it for land-grabbing or other criminal activities,” Ansari added.

There have been hundreds of blood feuds across the province that daily claim lives.

Scores of passersby have been killed after being caught in the crossfire.

Seven members of a family, mostly children, were killed in firing by armed men inside a house on Phandu Road on Tuesday.

At least 13 people were killed in separate incidents related to blood feuds in the provincial capital within 24 hours.

On Phandu Road in the limits of the Chamkani police station, armed men broke into a house late Monday night and shot dead seven persons, four of them children. “I visited the spot myself and tasked the capital city police officer and others to work out the case within no time,” said IGP KP.

Three special teams headed by senior officers have been tasked to arrest the culprits.

The decades-old blood feuds in the rural areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa claim hundreds of lives every year. There have been a number of blood-feuds in Peshawar and other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that started years ago over petty issues and have claimed scores of lives.

A number of groups involved in these feuds are also promoting gun culture and terrorising the common people by brandishing arms. There are also reports that some of these groups, which are heavily armed, are involved in crimes, supporting and facilitating criminals, land-grabbing and harassing innocent people by intentionally brandishing weapons in public.

Some of the blood-feuds have resulted in the death of almost all the male members in a family, leaving only women and children with nobody to feed them. “The DSPs and the SHOs should identify and document all the blood feuds that have claimed lives. They should also enlist the ones that can be a potential threat to law and order in future. The officers should forward the cases personally or encourage the rival parties to move the DRCs if there is any technical hurdle for the cops to get involved directly,” said Arbab Kamal Ahmad, a politician and elder from suburban Peshawar.

He said the DRCs and jirgas of only noble elders, and not the traditional white-collar criminals, can play an important role in settling hundreds of disputes and stopping the killing of people from both sides.

The DRCs in Peshawar and the rest of the KP could do a significant job in resolving disputes in a speedy manner. DRCs and jirgas in all the districts need to be made proactive so they intervene and settle issues before they could claim lives.

Peshawar has six DRCs including Gulbahar, Gulberg, Tatara, Badaber, Mathra and Hassankhel. Gulbahar was the first one that was set up in 2014 and has settled hundreds of issues so far.