MIRAMSHAH, June 22: A local militant commander has denied the existence of training camps in the North Waziristan Agency and warned that his supporters would lose patience if the government carried out a military operation in the volatile region.

“There will be a tit-for-tat response if the government violates the peace deal by launching combat operations,” warned militant commander Maulvi Abdul Khaliq Haqani while talking to a group of journalists here on Friday.

Maulvi Haqani, who along with a corps of militants signed a peace agreement with the government in September 2006, denied the presence of foreign militants and training camps in the region. He claimed that after the agreement, foreigners had gone across the border.

During the press conference he did not comment on the Tuesday attack at a suspected militant site in Datakhel that killed 34 people.

He said the tribesmen would neither allow foreigners to operate nor provide sanctuaries to them in the area, adding that such reports were baseless. He said the government had allegedly violated the peace deal four times, but the local Taliban were still honouring the agreement.

“Every tribesman will take up arms in self defence if the government starts an operation and its repercussions would be very serious,” Maulvi Haqani said. He alleged that the security forces were conducting operations in Waziristan at the behest of the US government.

He denied the allegations of the government that suicide bombers were being trained in Waziristan and said the Taliban were not involved in any terrorist activity in settled areas of the country.