PESHAWAR, June 25: Militants in the restive North Waziristan Agency on Sunday offered a conditional one month’s ceasefire but said they would have the right to defend themselves if attacked by security forces.
NWFP Governor Lt-Gen (retired) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai was quick to welcome the offer and hailed it as a good first step towards restoration of peace in the troubled region.
Abdullah Farhad, who speaks for the militants in North Waziristan, told BBC’s Urdu Service that a shura of militant commanders had offered a conditional one-month ceasefire to the government to facilitate mediators and ensure their safety while travelling to the region.
The announcement clears a major hurdle in back-channel negotiations between the two sides in North Waziristan, officials said.
Militants in the neighbouring South Waziristan have already announced a ceasefire and it is generally holding despite small-scale attacks on security forces.
Farhad said that the ceasefire was conditional to the government’s acceptance of their four demands: 1) That soldiers of the Pakistan Army manning checkposts in North Waziristan would be withdrawn within one month’s time and confined to their camps; and the army would have to pull out of the tribal region after one month;
2) That the government would restore all privileges and rights of the tribes, open closed markets, restore jobs and pay up withheld salaries of tribal employees;
3) All new checkposts, (said to be between 20 and 25), would have to be abolished within one month and only old checkposts would be allowed to exist, and those too should be manned by tribal khasadars — Frontier Corps’ paramilitary soldiers will not man those posts; and
4) Those arrested or captured during military operations in the volatile tribal region be released within a month.
“The offer is conditional and is for one month. But we have the right to defend ourselves if attacked,” the militant spokesman said.
Governor Aurakzai hailed the ceasefire offer as a welcome development and hoped that issues would be resolved through talks.
“It’s good. It’s a welcome development and I appreciate it. I think it would help bring peace to the tribal region,” he remarked while talking to Dawn.
Avoiding to speak on conditions set for the ceasefire, Mr Aurakzai said that those were matters for the jirga to decide. “When we will sit we will discuss. After all issues are resolved through talks and negotiations.”
He acknowledged that the ceasefire offer was the result of back-channel contacts between the government and the militants. “The day I took oath I said we would resolve our issues through jirgas and through negotiations.” He said that the grand tribal jirga was ready but avoided to give a firm date for launching it.
Officials familiar with the development, however, were cautiously optimistic. “Don’t jump the gun,” remarked a security official.
One source said that as a result of the back-channel contacts, some of which were held directly between security officials and militant commanders, the government had agreed to free militants captured during various military operations in the tribal region.
A government official admitted that security forces released 25 militants in two batches, including a batch of 13 released on Friday. More are expected to be released in due course.
“This was a key demand and it is being met,” the official said, adding the government was honouring its part of the bargain and was waiting for the militants to keep their word.
“So far their actions have not been matching their words and there was growing scepticism in certain circles that the militants were just not serious,” the official said. He said that top militant commanders pretended as if they were not in total control of over a dozen militant groups active in North Waziristan and, therefore, could not be held responsible for some of the attacks on security forces.
“We know this is not the case and that the attacks on our security forces are coordinated,” the official said.
The official said that while the conditions set forth by the militants’ shura seemed tough, the government was hopeful of a positive outcome. The real problem, said the official, was that the militants were demanding an end to military operation.
