Saturday, April 25, 2009
Eight FC platoons deployed in Buner; militants promise to abide by peace deal
By our correspondents
BATKHELA/MINGORA: The militants having control of the Buner district on Friday agreed to leave the area after successful talks held among the administration, the Taliban and the Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) representatives in Batkhela.
A 20-member delegation of the Muttahida Ulema Council, Swat, Taliban deputy chief Maulana Shah Dauran, spokesman Muslim Khan; commander Mahmood Khan, and Malakand Division Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed held talks with TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad at his headquarters at Bilal Masjid in Batkhela town of the Malakand Agency.
The talks ended on a positive note with the Taliban, holding sway in the Buner district, agreeing to vacate the area. It was also agreed that the militants would put an end to their activities in the district, stop display of arms, refrain from occupying police stations and other government installations.
Situation in Buner, having a strategic location, forced the government to send eight platoons of the Frontier Constabulary to the district to protect the government buildings. It was also mulling launching a full-scale military operation to end the control of the militants that threatened key sites of the country.
An all parties conference also took stock of the situation in Peshawar and all political parties lent their support to the Awami National Party-led NWFP government. Soon after the successful talks, the administration asked Maulana Sufi Muhammad to evict the militants from Buner.
Reports from Sultanwas town of the district, where the militants had established their headquarters, suggested that non-local militants had started leaving the area. “The issue of Buner is more important than Swat and we will go to Buner to disarm and expel the militants from the district. They (militants) will end their activities across the Malakand region,” Syed Muhammad Javed said in Batkhela.
Expressing satisfaction over the outcome of the talks, he said the militants would start leaving the area immediately on Friday. “Their expulsion is unconditional,” Javed claimed. Amir Izzat, the spokesman for the TNSM, said that Maulana Sufi Muhammad accompanied the convoy taking the Taliban out of Buner.
Muslim Khan claimed that the Taliban had started leaving the area. “They will leave lock, stock and barrel,” he said. He said that the Taliban wanted the enforcement of Shariah and had no intentions to capture other areas of the country. “It’s wrong that we want to control other areas. It is a propaganda against us. The Taliban will honour the peace agreement,” he assured.
After accomplishing the job of evicting militants from Buner, Sufi Muhammad would go to Shangla district, where around 30 militants had entered to get a foothold, and would ensure peace there, according to the commissioner. He would ensure the eviction of militants from that mountainous district, which has a passage to the strategic Karakoram Highway. However, Izzat said they would go back to Amandara.
It was reported that the militants in Shangla continued to patrol the Bazaar in Alpuri Tehsil but did not resort to violence.
The day some positive developments occurred in Buner, there were some incidents of violence in Swat valley. Four persons, including a woman, were killed in different incidents. The woman was killed in Rahimabad near Mingora. Three men Sher Ali Khan, Rahmat Ali and Muhammad Ali were shot dead on the bank of Swat River.
In Khwaja area, situated on the outskirts of Mingora, unknown assailants looted 7,144 cans of ghee from an NGO store.
Our Shangla correspondent adds: Taliban militants, who entered the Puran Tehsil on Thursday, were seen leaving the district on Friday. Eyewitnesses said the Taliban in groups were heading for the basic health unit (BHU) near and emerald mine where they had been residing for the last 25 days.
Security measures have been beefed up in the district. The security forces and the police were seen patrolling in the area. Reuters/AFP add: “Our leader has ordered that Taliban should immediately be called back from Buner,” Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told Reuters. He said there were only around 100 fighters in Buner.
Mehmood Khan, an aide to Fazlullah, said the militants were returning to Swat, and witnesses saw them leaving Buner in the early evening. “The provincial government has sent two Frontier Constabulary (FC) platoons to Buner, which have been posted in different police stations to check any attack by militants,” local police official Rasheed Khan told AFP.
0 comments:
Post a Comment