The Jani Khel tribe agreed on Monday to call off its protest against the killing of four young men after successful talks with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
The agreement was signed at the Commissioner Office in Bannu. Special Assistant to Chief Minister Kamran Bangash and provincial ministers Shah Muhammad, Ziaullah Bangash, Shahjee Gul Afridi and other government officials signed the agreement with the tribe. KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan presided over the proceedings of the agreement inked by Joint Qaumi (Afridi, Orakzai and Marwat) Jirga and elders of the Jani Khel tribe.
According to Bangash, CM Mahmood Khan had accepted all the demands, saying that members of the provincial cabinet, as well as mediators, were part of the dialogue. He further said that the CM particularly thanked Dr Hesham Inamullah Khan and the Marwat tribe for their role in the talks. Bangash announced a compensation package of Rs2.5 million for each bereaved family.
According to the agreement signed between the Jani Khel tribe and the KP government, the government will hold a transparent inquiry into the incident and punish the culprits.
A Shuhada (martyrs) compensation package will be given to the families of the four deceased. The government will introduce a special development package for Jani Khel.
The government has also said it will ensure peace in Jani Khel by clearing all armed groups in the area, while the locals will be allowed possession of weapons with a licence and their houses will not be demolished.
Within three months, the government will carry out a review of the already apprehended individuals of Jani Khel tribe and the innocent will be released immediately. The cases of those found guilty, however, will be dealt with as per the law. The locals of Jani Khel will be given access to government officials to address their other problems.
The residents had been staging a sit-in in their area since March 21, demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits involved in the kidnappings and murder of four teenagers. The bullet-riddled bodies were found buried in a local graveyard of the district.
Earlier, according to police, the locals discovered four fresh graves in a local graveyard. They said that no local had died recently so they became suspicious and decided to dig the graves. “They started digging the graves and found four bullet-riddled bodies of local youngsters inside who had gone missing some 20 days ago. One head had been removed from the body while three bodies were bullet-riddled,” the report had quoted the law enforcement agency as saying.
