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Ceasefire brokered in Waziristan

* Senior Taliban commanders part of ceasefire negotiations

By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: A Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman)-dominated tribal jirga on Thursday brokered a temporary ceasefire between foreign militants and Wazir tribes in South Waziristan, who have been fighting since Monday.

“Both sides have agreed to the jirga demand for a ceasefire,” said Niaz Muhammad Qureshi, JUI-F information secretary for South Waziristan. “We are glad that the two sides conceded to the tribal elders and clerics’ plea for silencing their guns in order to solve their issues through peaceful means,” he added.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said that the toll in four days of fighting likely crossed 135 on Thursday. The dead include some 100 foreigners, 25 fighters of local tribes.

Senior militant leaders like Baitullah Mehsud, Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of senior Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, and an unnamed Taliban commander from across the Afghan border reached undisclosed locations in South Waziristan to take part in the ceasefire negotiations. “They are all monitoring the situation and discussing with key local militant commanders how things can be cooled down,” said tribal sources.

Tribal sources said that Maulvi Nazir, commander of pro-Taliban tribal militants in Wazir areas, at one point was unwilling to negotiate a ceasefire with foreign militants and their local harbourers. “The jirga members convinced him after hours-long parleys,” said sources in Dera Ismail Khan city, 200 miles south of Peshawar.

Security officials in Tank city said that pro-Maulvi Nazir militants on Thursday ambushed two vehicles carrying 12 Uzbek militants, killing six of them in Zarmilan, 35 kilometres south of Wana.

“Other foreign militants fled in the second vehicle while local militants lost two comrades in the ambush,” the security officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Otherwise, the clashes on the fourth day of the conflict were less intense, a military spokesman said. “The clashes continued but their intensity was low,” Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad told Daily Times by phone from Rawalpindi.

Wana residents reaching Dera Ismail Khan city said that both sides were manning check-points in Azam Warsak and Kaloosha. “Both sides search you when you pass through areas they control area,” Nazar Muhammad, a general merchant in Wana, told Daily Times by phone from Dera Ismail Khan.

Maulvi Nazir was quoted as saying that the foreign militants would be provided shelter as refugees only after they “disarmed” themselves.

“There can be no other arrangement as far as the foreigners’ stay in (South) Waziristan is concerned,” he told a group of elders who visited him near Wana on Wednesday.

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