|
Peshawar: Pakistani authorities have signed a deal with Islamist militants after they agreed to stop threatening the northwestern city of Peshawar and dismantle training camps, officials said on Thursday.
Militants have been expanding their influence across northwestern Pakistan and violence surged after the army stormed a militant mosque in Islamabad a year ago, raising worries about prospects for the nuclear-armed US ally.
Western allies and Afghanistan have expressed concerns about Pakistan's peace pacts with militants in its ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border.
Opportunity
They have said two deals signed in the Waziristan region since 2005 gave the militants the opportunity to re-group and step up attacks into Afghanistan. Both those deals broke down.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, in a clear reference to Pakistan, told the United Nations on Wednesday a main factor behind deteriorating Afghan security was pacts in tribal areas beyond the border. But the latest pact is with a small faction in the Khyber region. The group, while espousing Taliban ways, is not known for sending members into Afghanistan to battle Western forces. "The agreement has been signed," a senior government official in Peshawar said.
Under the agreement, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, the militants loyal to commander Mangal Bagh agreed to stop forays into Peshawar and to accept the writ of the government.
"There will be no parallel administration and they will not run any training camps," according to the agreement. The militants will also not be allowed to carry weapons openly.
US supplies
In return, security forces would withdraw from the region and everyone detained during a recent sweep would be released.
Security forces launched a sweep in Khyber on June 28, the first major military action under a government that came to power after February polls promising to negotiate to end violence.
Supplies for US forces in Afghanistan are trucked through the Khyber Pass and concern has been growing about security along the route.
Peshawar residents had begun to fear that their city could fall into the clutches of the Taliban after militants began appearing in some neighbourhoods, threatening music and video shops and ordering barbers to stop shaving beards in line with hardline Taliban edicts.
Doctor's body found
In a separate incident, militants took 11 paramilitary soldiers and government workers hostage after security forces arrested seven insurgents near the town of Doaba, southwest of Peshawar.
Elsewhere, six people were killed in landmine blasts in the Kurram region, and in North Waziristan, residents found the bullet-riddled body of a doctor.
"He was against jihad (holy war)," read a note left with the body.
|
