...

Pakistan's Taliban agrees to leave northwestern district: TV

Other News Materials 24 April 2009 12:45 (UTC +04:00)

Pakistan's Taliban has agreed to move out of Buner district of North West Frontier Province ( NWFP), which was taken over days ago by militants in defiance of a volatile peace deal, local television reported on Friday.

Fear has spread among local people in Buner district after Taliban infiltrated from adjourning Swat valley into the area, only about 100 kilometers away from the capital Islamabad, Xinhua reported.

"Taliban has agreed to leave Buner district," private Dawn TV channel quoted an official as saying.
The militants, who had sneaked into Buner on April 4, were reported to have started patrolling bazaars, villages and towns in Buner and banned women from appearing in public.

To appease local Taliban militants, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has signed a regulation introducing Sharia into the Malakand division of NWFP, including Swat and Buner, after February's peace deal.

But critics have said that the deal has surrendered the write of the state to terrorists, and invites the terrorists to extend their way to other areas of the country.

"I think the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday in Washington.
Pakistan has sent six paramilitary platoons to Buner to oversee the situation in view of the Taliban presence in the region.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, while addressing the parliament on Friday, said Pakistan will review its policy if the situation gets worse.

Latest

Latest