LANDI KOTAL: The Khyber Agency administration restored all the perks and privileges of Sipah tribe after reaching an understanding with its elders regarding handing over of suspected militants involved in bomb attack on security forces in Bara last month.

Officials said that Sipah elders agreed to cooperate with the administration in identifying and locating the wanted men for their alleged involvement in a bomb attack, which took place in Malakdinkhel on July 16. Two Frontier Corps personnel were critically injured in the blast.

The administration had suspended all the official perks and privileges of Sipah tribe after the blast. The responsibility of the attack was claimed by banned militant group Lashkar-iIslam. The chief of LI, Mangal Bagh, belongs to Sipah tribe.

Confirming restoration of the privileges, an elder Malak Mohammad Ali told Dawn that a jirga was also convened at Khyber House on Thursday (today) by the administration to distribute among the elders the Muwaajib (an annual stipend of tribalelders).

He, however, said that although his tribe extended full support to administration in handing over to it the suspect militants in Sipah territory, provision of security was the responsibility of security forces.

Meanwhile, the Bara administration issued notices to at least 120 families, whose compensation cheques were lying at Khyber House without being received for several months.

Officials said that houses of those 120 families were included in the damage assessment survey report conducted in different parts of Bara but the original owners were yet to receive the compensation amount.

PENSIONERS: The pensioners in Bara have complained about hardships they face in receiving their pension amount owing to lack of interest of the bank staff.

Talking to journalists at Bara Press Club, they accused bank staff of making them wait for long hours in scorching heat at its Bara Gate branch near Peshawar Airport.

They said that the bank staff had made no arrangements for elderly pensioners and their family members. They said that majority of the pensioners returned empty hands after waiting for several hours at the bank.

Similar views were also expressed by local contractors, who alleged that the bank staff at Bara Gate branch was not cooperating with them in drafting of the call deposits for various development schemes in Bara. The pensioners and contractors demanded of the authorities to shift the branch of the bank to Bara Bazaar to facilitate them.

NARCOTICS: The authorities in Jamrud seized 35 kilograms of hashish and 11 kilograms of heroin during routine checking at different checkposts.

Meanwhile, five persons were injured when two vehicles collided head on near Sur Kamar on Peshawar-Torkham Road in Jamrud on Tuesday. The injured were shifted to a local hospital for treatment.