Residents in Pakistan’s northwestern South Waziristan tribal district have ended their protest after three days following overnight talks with local administration and security officials.
Hundreds of people launched a sit-in protest in Makin area on April 26 to demand the arrest of security personnel they accuse of recently killing two teenage residents and wounding another, compensation for relatives of the victims, and the evacuation of the houses where security personnel are currently staying.
The protesters refused to bury the dead bodies until their demands were met.
But one of the protest leaders, Rahmat Shah Maseed, told RFE/RL early on April 29 that the demonstration had been called off and the bodies buried.
The head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps “admitted that the youngsters were shot mistakenly, and the security forces will evacuate the local houses,” Maseed said.
The deputy commissioner and police chief of South Waziristan inked an agreement with tribal elders and elected parliamentarians of the tribal district late on April 28 stating that a compensation of 2 million Pakistani rupees ($12,950) will be paid to the families of those killed or wounded in the incident, while two members of each family will be given jobs.
“The families of victims can lodge the case with police against the perpetrators along with proof and eye-witnesses,” read the agreement.
The demonstrators say they have identified those behind the shooting that occurred overnight on April 25.
Residents near the border of Afghanistan, including many ethnic Pashtuns, have complained for years about the army's heavy-handed tactics in their campaigns against militants that have killed thousands of Pashtun civilians and forced millions more to abandon their homes since 2003.