They said that the two tribes had started fortifying positions in their respective localities in anticipation of an eminent Taliban reprisal.
They said that the Taliban of Tariq Afridi group who had only recently forced Kukikhel
...a tribe of primitives inhabiting Khyber Agency. They are a branch of the Afridi tribe. Traditionally they have been migratory, tromping between Jamrud and the Rajgal valley with the seasons. The tribe has had mustache-cursing relationships with several other tribes, including the Zakkakhel and Kambarkhel, and with the Mullagori. They make welcome most anyone with a turban and automatic weapons, but every once in awhile they get together a tribal lashkar to mollify the government...
tribes to leave their area, were suspicious of the role of Qambarkhel and Kamarkhel tribes and had been accusing them of clandestinely supporting their opponent and spying on them for the government.
It was learnt that after repeated assurances by the elders of the two tribes, Taliban refused to agree to their point of view and asked to cooperate with them or face action.
The sources said that Taliban had now set their eyes on other parts of Bara tehsil after consolidating their position in Kukihkel areas. They said that in view of the recent developments the Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency
...-led Lashkar-e-Islam had also sent a word of conciliation to its Zakhakhel rival, the Tawheedul Islam (TI).
They said that the LI wanted to form a joint front against the Taliban in order to check their advances in its own dominated areas of Tirah.
But so far, the sources said, these conciliatory gestures had failed to yield any fruit as the Zakhakhels were reluctant to trust LI.
They said that the LI had even offered to release all Zakhakhel captives as a gesture of goodwill, but the TI showed no interest in
any reconciliation.
The TI was formed in March last year after some of the LI commanders from Zakhakhel tribe developed differences with Mangal Bagh over the killing of a Zakhakhel holy man.
Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard...
activists of the two rival groups clashed in the border area of Akkakhel and Zakhakhel on the night between Friday and Saturday which resulted in injuries to two LI activists. The LI claimed to have captured two volunteers of its rival group.
In Akkakhel area of Bara, myrmidons targeted a government school with a rocket and damaged its one portion. However,
some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves...
no one was hurt, as the school was closed.