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Army cuts deal with Taliban factions

* Maulvi Nazir, Gul Bahadur to allow army movement through their lands
* ISPR says army, Taliban have ‘understanding’, not ‘agreement’

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The army, in the midst of an operation in South Waziristan, has struck deals to keep two powerful, anti-US tribal chiefs from joining the battle against the government, officials have said.

Under the terms agreed to about three weeks ago, Taliban renegades Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur would stay out of the parts of South Waziristan controlled by the TTP.

They would also allow the army to move through their own lands unimpeded, giving the military additional fronts from which to attack the Taliban. In exchange, the army would ease patrols and bombings in the lands controlled by Nazir and Bahadur, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity.

US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said he was unaware of an agreement to keep some militant factions out of the fight for now, but other US officials said the strategy was not surprising or necessarily worrisome. Because the faction loyal to TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud poses the most direct threat to Pakistan, it is the logical first target, US officials briefed on the offensive said.

Not agreement: Security analysts said the army had little choice but to cut deals with rival Taliban factions to have a chance of success. “If the army opens up multiple fronts, they will be deluged,” said Khalid Aziz, a former administrator in the northwest.

Meanwhile, army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said there was no agreement with the two men, but “there is an understanding with them that they will not interfere in this war”. He said the army “had to talk to the devil” to isolate its main target. ap

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