Dispute over job: Four killed as cousins trade fire in South Waziristan

WANA: Four persons were killed and another was injured when cousins exchanged fire over a dispute related to the regularisation of services in the Khassadar force in Shabozai in Sararogha tehsil in South Waziristan.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Saghir Ahmad Gilani said that cousins belonging to the Mahsud tribe traded the fire after developing differences over the regularisation of jobs in the Khassadar force. The firing incident left Fazal Khaliq, Mohammad Din, Saifullah and Talib dead.

One Hafeezullah, who was injured in the firing, was taken to a hospital in Tank district. The police official said that the bodies were taken to a hospital in Wana for post-mortem. He added that a case was registered against the accused. Raids were being conducted to bring the accused to justice, he added. It merits a mention here that members of a family would take turns to perform duty in the erstwhile Khassadar force in the place of an absent member of the force before the merger of the ex-Fata into KP. But after the merger of the former tribal areas with KP, the government regularised the services of the personnel of the Khassadars.

As a result, the ones working illegally for the absentee Khassadars were regularised. This caused disputes among the family members and the ones, who performed duty as proxies for the Khassadars, who either worked elsewhere and or had gone abroad. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly introduced a piece of legislation to regularise the ones performing duties in place of a member of the Khassadar force.