• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Pakistani Taliban warn to scrap peace deal

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, March 23, IRNA -- A Pakistani Taliban group in the country’s North Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday said they will end peace agreement with the security forces as the US is carrying out drone strikes in the area with the ‘consent of the Pakistani forces’.

Taliban group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadar had struck a deal with the Pakistani forces in 2007 under which both sides had stopped attacks on each other.

There has been relatively peace in North Waziristan since the peace agreement as both sides respected the deal.

Pakistan is under tremendous US pressure to launch offensive against the Taliban militants in North Waziristan as CIA considers it as the stronghold of the militants to organize cross border attacks on US-led foreign as well as Afghan forces.

The US spy planes regularly fire missiles into the region to target the militants but a strike on Wednesday killed 44 tribesmen who had gathered for a jirga or council of elders to resolve a dispute over minerals.

Pakistan angrily reacted to the civilian deaths and the US ambassador was also summoned to the Foreign Ministry for a formal protest.

Pakistan sought apology and refused to attend a trilateral meeting with the US and Afghanistan in Brussels later this month. Tribesmen in North Waziristan staged rallies and vowed revenge.

Taliban on Sunday issued a statement in Miranshah, the center of North Waziristan, and alleged that the US drone aircraft are conducting air strikes with the ‘consent of the Pakistani forces’. Pakistan army has always denied such claims.

“We had signed a peace deal with the security forces for peace in the area but the US drones are killing innocent people,” Ahmadullah Ahmadi, purported spokesman for the Taliban (Hafiz Gul Bahadar group) said.

“The agreement was aimed at ensuring peace and protecting our people but now even our jirgas are not safe,” the statement said.

It criticized a recent statement of local Pakistan army commander that most of the militants are killed in US drone strikes.

Pakistan army commander in North Waziristan, Maj-Gen Ghayur Mehmood, told reporters in North Waziristan last week that “most of those killed in the US drone strikes were hardcore Al Qaeda and Taliban militants and a fairly large number of them were of foreign origin”.

The Taliban statement said that the statement of the Pakistani army commander has encouraged the US to carry out drone strikes.

“We had struck the peace deal for the security of our people and we can end the agreement if our people are not safe,” the Taliban statement said.

**1420
Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30308736