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Tribal clerics warn government against peace agreement breach

MIRANSHAH: Clerics on Sunday warned the government against any move to break a peace deal signed last year to bring an end to fighting in the tribal region.

The government and local Taliban struck the deal in the restive North Waziristan tribal region on September 5, which brought an end to continued fighting in the region.

The agreement also called for an expulsion of Al Qaeda-linked foreigners from the region to halt their incursions into Afghanistan from the Pakistani tribal region.

Members of the peace committee, who resigned last month to protest against an army attack without their consultations, asked the government not to “commit the mistake of ending the peace deal”.

“Any move to end the peace deal will have disastrous consequences,” clerics Maulana Ramzan and Hafiz Noor-Allah told a news conference here. They said the region had become peaceful after the accord, but accused the government of attempting to break the agreement under different pretexts.

“We are receiving indications that the government is bent upon breaking the agreement. If that happens, thousands of tribesmen will face dire consequences,” they added.

The clerics said the people of Waziristan were honouring the agreement and the government must also reciprocate the gesture. They said the government had planned the establishment of more security check posts, which they said violated the deal as it had called for the removal of all roadside army check posts.

They also complained that the authorities were distributing compensation funds among people who did not need it while the people who had been most affected by military operations were being ignored. nni

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