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Mangal Bagh offers to talk to govt

* Baitullah Mehsud directs Swat Taliban to resume peace talks with govt * AI favours Khyber action, demands ‘purposeful operation’

PESHAWAR: Lashkar-e-Islam chief Mangal Bagh on Wednesday offered to hold talks with the government, while declaring that the security forces leave the Khyber Agency and go back to barracks.

Bagh told Geo TV on Wednesday that he had no plan to ‘capture’ Peshawar, adding that he had never challenged the government. Khyber Agency Political Agent Tariq Hayat Khan stressed that paramilitary action in the agency would continue until the state’s writ is firmly established. A tribal jirga has been sent to Tirah Valley to hold talks with Bagh, Hayat told reporters. In another development, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud directed Swat-based Taliban to resume peace talks with the NWFP government, the channel reported.

Mehsud has directed the Swat-based Taliban to continue negotiations with the government, TTP Swat spokesman Muslim Khan told the channel. The security forces are damaging the peace of the area by targeting the civilian population, Khan said.

‘Purposeful operation’: Meanwhile, Ansarul Islam, (AI) favouring the ongoing paramilitary action in the Khyber Agency, said the operation should not be “eyewash”. AI demanded the government take “purposeful” measures to curb militancy in the region.

“We favour the operation, but it should not be limited only to razing houses and offices of religious outfits in the agency, it should be purposeful,” key member of Ansarul Islam Haji Muhammad Amin told a news conference in Peshawar. akhtar amin/ daily times monitor

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