Tribesmen signed a deal with Pakistani authorities on Monday, promising not to shelter militants in a tribal area on the Afghan border where the military said the Taliban had been defeated.
The 28-point deal came as Taliban fighters released five Pakistani soldiers who were kidnapped when the military launched a massive operation in Bajaur six months ago and after five rebels were killed in clashes with troops.
Pakistan’s civilian government launched the offensive last August, largely in response to United States pressure to do more to stop militants attacking foreign troops in Afghanistan from safe havens over the border.
Residents say reconstruction and basic services such as water and electricity are desperately important if peace efforts are to last in Bajaur.
The blueprint was signed by tribal elders from Mamoun, the most populous district in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal region of Bajaur, and government officials in Khar, the main town in the area.
”Tribal elders assured the government that militants will lay down arms and live peacefully in Mamoun under the deal,” local administration official, Shafirullah Khan, told reporters after the signing ceremony.
He said that all militant organisations would be disbanded in the area and that the writ of government would be restored.
”Foreign militants will not be harboured by anyone in Mamoun and rebels will not set up any training camps,” Khan added.
”Government and security officials will not be attacked or kidnapped and there will be no restriction on the movement of security forces in Mamoun,” the official said.
Mamoun is home to about 300 000 out of the total 900 000 population of Bajaur, and was a storming ground for several Pakistani Taliban commanders.
Local tribesmen were previously divided between those who backed local authorities and those who supported the militants.
Tribesmen inked the deal one day after Islamists handed over paramilitary soldiers in Mamoun, 22km north of Khar.
”Militants unconditionally freed the five soldiers who will be handed over to the local administration,” local official Faramosh Khan told AFP.
He said the soldiers had been kidnapped from Loisam in August, when Pakistan launched a massive military operation in Bajaur trying to flush militant bases out of the mountainous region near the Afghan border.
Five militants were killed in clashes with paramilitaries and tribesmen in Nawagai, 30km northwest of Khar, late on Sunday, a local official said.
The military said on February 28 it had effectively won the battle against the Taliban in remote Bajaur.
The seven semi-autonomous tribal areas in northwest Pakistan became a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001. — Sapa-AFP