Little progress in talks for alien registration -DAWN


07 May 2004	Friday	16 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

Little progress in talks for alien registration
By Our Correspondent

WANA, May 6: There was no headway in talks on the registration of foreign militants in the volatile South Waziristan tribal region on Thursday as tribal militants and military officials remained stuck to their old-stated positions, officials told Dawn.

"There was no headway. Now there is a fifty-fifty chance," said an official. The two sides are meeting again on Friday, the last day of the extended deadline for foreign militants to avail themselves of the government's amnesty offer and get registered with the authorities.

General Officer Commanding Kohat Maj-Gen Niaz Khattak represented the government in talks with the militants led by 27-year-old Nek Muhammad, Haji Sharif, Maulvi Abbas and Maulana Abdul Aziz.

The two guarantors to the April-24 Shakai agreement, MNA Maulana Merajuddin and Maulana Abdul Malik, and ex-MNA Maulana Noor Muhammad were also present on the occasion.

They met for several hours at the Army's Zari Noor Colony, about 6km to the west of the regional headquarters. Gen Niaz later declined to give details of the talks and urged local journalists to concentrate on the development taking place in the tribal region.

But Maulana Abdul Malik told the newsmen that there were no differences between the two sides. Meanwhile, an official said Nek Muhammad had urged the military authorities to accept his personal guarantees that the foreign militants, believed to be in hundreds, would not use Pakistani soil against any foreign country and would give their undertaking to live peacefully.

He offered to provide a list of the foreign militants hiding in the region.

DEADLINE: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has asked the federal government to extend the deadline given to the foreign militants to register with the local authorities, adds our Peshawar Bureau.

A spokesman for the MMA, Mufti Kafayetullah, told newsmen here on Thursday said that the registration procedure was very complicated and asked the government to simplify it.