July 16, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 19, 1427

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KHAR, July 15: Representatives of a banned militant organisation declared ceasefire and called upon the government to release all its activists arrested during the past 18 months.

This was decided during talks between the 50-member grand Mamond tribal jirga and leaders of the Tehreek-i-Nifaaz Sahria Mohammadi (TNSM) in the Damadola area on Saturday.

Malik Abdul Aziz, a jirga elder, said that TNSM activists should strive for peace in their respective areas.

Maulana Liaqatullah, naib amir of the TNSM, representing the organisation, said that the political administration should not take punitive action against their activists during the talks. He pledged not to display arms or hold protest rallies but said that people’s security should be guaranteed in the Bajaur agency.

He insisted that the organisation was waging ‘jihad’ only against the United States and it would continue to fight as long as the US forces were present in Afghanistan.

“It is true that we (the TNSM) have some links with Al Qaeeda but (we believe that) it does not believe in killing Muslim brothers,” Maulana Liaqatullah said.

They maintained that they had nothing to do with the disturbance in the Bajaur Agency.