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Pakistan: Taliban agree to leave part of Lower Dir
[ADN Kronos] Taliban militants in Pakistan's Lower Dir district in the country's restive North West Frontier Province agreed to wind up their camps and pull out of the Asbanr and Gulabad areas within two days. Pakistan's security forces are currently engaged in a fierce military campaign against Islamist insurgents in the NWFP's troubled Malakand division including Lower Dir, Swat and Buner districts.According to sources quoted by Pakistani daily Dawn on Thursday, the Taliban made their promise to a jirga or tribal council at a joint gathering of local people and the Taliban. The jirga representing the people of Asbanr held talks with the Taliban at a government primary school. It urged the Taliban to leave the area because thousands of people had been left homeless and scores killed or injured as a result of their activities and the deployment of security forces in Adenzai tehsil. Sultanat Yar of Jamaat-i-Islami, Khurshid Ali of Pakistan People's Party and tribal leaders Umar Bacha and Shamsul Qamar attended the jirga. A member of the jirga claimed the talks had been fruitful. He said the Taliban, who were represented by a cleric from the volatile Swat area, had promised to start leaving on Thursday. "They did not set any condition for pulling out," he said. According to the sources, the Taliban called upon people to cooperate with them because they were struggling for the enforcement of sharia or Islamic law, but members of the jirga said their presence in the area had created problems for the population. The jirga said had been in contact with the Taliban for five days and the militants had left the villages of Shawa and Kityari on its request. Another member of the jirga claimed the Taliban had promised to leave Adenzai by Friday. Other members of jirga also urged Lower Dir's Nazim Ahmed Hassan Khan and Adenzai Tehsil's Nazim Mohammad Omar to persuade the government to withdraw security forces and remove checkpoints in the area after the Taliban leaves. They demanded that the Pakistani government stop the military operation and pull out troops to restore peace in Adenzai. Posted by: Fred 2009-05-23 |
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