May 21, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 04, 1428

TANK, May 20: A peace jirga on Sunday denied reports suggesting that tribal militants, including Baitullah Mahsud, were involved in the unrest in the troubled Tank city.

The 45-member peace jirga said that local groups were behind the recent riots which left many people dead and wounded.

MNA Maulana Lutfur Rehman presided over the jirga.

Parliamentarians from the South Waziristan Agency, officials and elders of the area attended the jirga, which discussed various options at a close door meeting.

Pakistan People’s Party blamed Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) for the lawlessness in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts.

PPP leader Dawar Khan Kundi, who is also member

of the jirga, said that the troublemakers belonged to the

JUI (F) and Maulana brothers were providing protection to Taliban.

He said that the peace jirga was a show of the JUI (F) and it could not restore peace in the area.

He said that security forces arrested the troublemakers and Maulana Fazl’s brothers pressurised police to release them.

Maulana Lutfur Rehman told journalists that the jirga believed that militants in the South Waziristan Agency, including Baitullah Mahsud, had nothing to do with the security situation in Tank.

He said that they had identified the groups who were responsible for the riots in the area and added that the administration would soon take serious action against the groups.

He said that the jirga would brief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday about the decision.

He said that police had been directed to remove security checkpoints from roads in the district, while innocent people arrested during the recent riots would be released.