A ceasefire between rival factions was reached in Hangu late on Sunday, after 30 people were killed and 50 injured in sectarian clashes that broke out on Friday.Twenty houses -- including that of the district Zakat committee chairman -- were set ablaze in fresh clashes despite an earlier truce on Sunday afternoon, as Helicopter gunships pounded 'miscreant' hideouts. A private TV channel said the house of local Awami National Party leader Yahya Qureshi was also torched.
The second ceasefire was reached in a jirga (tribal council) headed by Kohat Division Commissioner Umar Afridi around midnight, Hungu District Coordination Officer Syed Mujibur Rehman told a private TV channel. Rival groups would vacate bunkers they have captured in each other's areas and there will be a ban on the display of weapons according to the pact, jirga member Shah Hussain told the channel.
An earlier truce was rejected by one of fighting groups. The TV channel said tribal elders held talks with Taliban to persuade them to leave the district, but the Taliban refused to comply unless instructed to do so by their commander.
Officials told Daily Times that security forces would take positions in the city on Monday (today), as reinforcements arrive.
"We targeted the hideouts of miscreants with helicopter gunships," Mujibur Rehman told AFP, without giving any details about the results of the operation.
"The troublemakers have set up bunkers on hilltops and in some houses, and were firing on each other to trigger sectarian violence," he added.
The supply of electricity to the city remained suspended for the third day.
Earlier on Sunday, NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani appealed to the warring factions in Hangu to stop fighting and "demonstrate a spirit of tolerance to pave the way for restoration of peace in the area", according to a statement issued in Peshawar. "It is the need of the hour that both the factions must lay down arms and let the normal administrative process work to restore peace and resolve the grievances of the respective people."