May 22, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 05, 1428

MIRAMSHAH, May 21: Shopkeepers in Mirali bazaar in the North Waziristan agency on Monday ignored the directives of the local Taliban to pull down shutters in protest against the kidnappings of six women government employees and their three male colleagues.

Officials told Dawn in Peshawar that the political administration and Taliban shura were unable to find the whereabouts of the kidnapped employees.

The Taliban had made announcements in the town demanding shopkeepers to shut down their shops in protest against the kidnappings of the government employees who were whisked away from Nowrek area near Mirali on Friday last. However, shopkeepers ignored the strike call.

The Taliban termed the kidnappings, particularly those of women, against all norms and values of their tribal society.

Sources said the Taliban shura, who signed peace agreements with the government last year, had no influence in Mirali town and its surrounding areas. The shura headed by Hafiz Gul Behadar has control only in Miramshah.

The Taliban and political administration have found no traces of the nine employees. The employees escorted by the Khasadar force were on way to Miramshah to conduct Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) when they were kidnapped in the volatile agency.

The Civil Secretariat, Fata, in collaboration with the NWFP Bureau of Statistics had planned the MICS in context of pursuing a nine-year sustainable development plan for the tribal areas.

Sources told Dawn in Peshawar that negotiations were underway between a ten-member peace committee and the unknown kidnappers to set the employees free. About 120 militants had blocked the main road and kidnapped the employees.

The sources said that the political administration had given security clearance to the team before letting them proceed to the troubled area. They said the females were clad in the traditional burqa before setting off for Miramshah.

Families of the kidnapped persons have expressed concern over the future of their relatives and the administration’s inability to provide security to government officials.

A relative of the kidnapped persons said that the government was well aware about the security situation in the North Waziristan agency but even then female officials were sent to the hostile region

Officials said that no group in Mirali had so far come forward to claim responsibility for the kidnappings.